Gaza residents killed in 2023 airstrike laid to rest in mass funeral

Palestinian mourners attend the funeral of members of the Abu Sharia and Al-Hasayna families, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble of residential buildings in the Al-Sabra neighborhood which were struck by Israeli bombardments in November 2023, in Gaza City on August 4, 2026. (AFP)

CAIRO: A mass funeral was held Tuesday in Gaza City for more than 100 Palestinians whose bodies were recovered nearly three years after Israeli warplanes flattened a residential block.
Hundreds gathered as the bodies, wrapped in Palestinian flags, were laid in rows near the destroyed buildings before being carried on stretchers through a narrow street for burial in a nearby cemetery.
The 112 victims were among more than 300 killed during a Nov. 22, 2023, attack on Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood.
First responders recovered the bodies over the weekend after digging through the rubble for 136 hours, according to the Civil Defense, a rescue agency operated under Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
The bodies included 40 children, 30 women and seven people with disabilities, the Civil Defense said in a statement, adding that another 157 people remained missing under the rubble.
The Gaza war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
Israel’s military offensive in Gaza has since killed 73,375 people, including civilians and combatants, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Around 7,400 people are still missing and presumed buried under the rubble from the war, according to Zaher Al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s records department.