Mass funeral in Gaza for 112 Palestinians killed in 2023 Israeli strike
The bodies - belonging to members of two extended families - have only recently been recovered from under rubble in Gaza City.
A mass funeral was held in Gaza City for 112 Palestinians, predominantly women and children, who perished in an Israeli strike on a residential block in late 2023, early in the conflict. Hundreds gathered to mourn the members of the Abu Sharia and Hassayna families.
The bodies, belonging to two extended families, were recently exhumed from beneath the debris in a two-week recovery effort. Dramatic footage depicted the remains, each draped in a Palestinian flag and some bearing a photograph of the deceased, laid out in rows before being carried away by relatives. This funeral is believed to be the largest of its kind in Gaza.
"I think this is a feeling that was supposed [to be felt], a feeling of pain, grief and loss," stated mourner Ali Abu Sharia. "After we managed to retrieve them and bury them, perhaps we can be partially relieved despite the pain of loss and all we're still living through."
Among the deceased from the Abu Sharia and Hassayna families, who form a single clan, were 40 children, 38 women, and seven individuals with disabilities. They were killed on November 22, 2023, when a residential block in Gaza City's Sabra neighborhood was targeted by Israel. This occurred during a day of intense bombardment, six weeks after the October 7 Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and 251 hostages. The BBC has sought information from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) regarding the target but has not yet received a response.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are deemed reliable by the UN, at least 73,377 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began.
The recovery operation in Gaza was conducted by the Civil Defence, operating under the Hamas-run interior ministry, with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Patrick Griffiths, an ICRC spokesperson, explained, "We provide material support - literally the gloves, shovels, protective equipment and body bags they use." He added, "We provide training, supporting them to do their work safely, in line with professional practice ensuring the deceased are treated with dignity. And we've supported them by renting - for hundreds of hours - two of the only excavators available for this work in Gaza."
Griffiths acknowledged the difficulty of the news for families, stating, "It's not an answer any family wants to receive - confirmation that your loved one has been killed. But it's essential towards them receiving closure and being able to mourn their loss in their own way."
Last month, the BBC documented the initial phase of the body recovery in Sabra, where a bulldozer cleared rubble before more meticulous manual work commenced. Mohammed Basel, a Civil Defence spokesman, commented at the time, "This multi-storey building has been levelled. There were maybe more than 180 civilians inside. Most of them, around 90%, were killed." He noted the difficulty of accessing the site immediately after the strikes due to the need for coordination with Israel via a third party like the ICRC and the significant danger in the area.
Relatives of the deceased were present to guide the recovery teams, stating they had retrieved as many bodies as possible immediately after the attack and were relieved to provide proper burials for others. Nahed al-Hassayna, showing the BBC the rubble of his family's living room, expressed, "It's a devastating and sad feeling that resonates with everyone who was here." Holding up possessions of his young relatives, he questioned, "The kids – what did they do? This was a school backpack for Omar, and this was Ibrahim's shoe. Why? Why were they killed?"
Yousef Abu Sharia, standing nearby, shared his personal tragedy: "I'm the sole survivor of my family. Today, I'm talking to you [as] the one who lost my mother, my father, my uncle and my cousins and all my family. I lost them under this rubble."
It is estimated that dozens more bodies remain unrecovered at the site. Across the Gaza Strip, thousands more individuals are unaccounted for, with many believed to be buried under the rubble from intense Israeli air strikes during the war.