Large crowds gathered in Gaza City for a mass funeral of 112 people whose bodies were recovered from beneath a residential structure destroyed in an Israeli military strike on 22 November 2023. The remains, belonging to members of the Abu Sharia and Hassayna families, had been buried under rubble for an extended period before a two-week recovery operation by the Civil Defence retrieved them. The deceased included 44 children, 38 women, and seven individuals with disabilities.
The strike occurred during intense bombardment six weeks after the 7 October Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and 251 people taken hostage. The Israeli Defense Forces had not provided information about the military target when the BBC inquired. Footage from the funeral showed remains arranged in rows, each covered with a Palestinian flag and some with photographs of the deceased, before being carried away by relatives. One attendee, Ali Abu Sharia, described the emotional complexity of finally being able to bury recovered family members while continuing to endure ongoing conflict.
The recovery effort involved the Civil Defence, which operates under Hamas-run administrative structures, with material and technical support from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The ICRC provided equipment, protective gear, training, and access to excavators—resources described as essential in a territory with severely limited machinery. Patrick Griffiths, ICRC spokesperson, emphasized the importance of recovery work in allowing families to achieve closure and conduct mourning according to their own practices, while noting the difficult reality of confirming casualties.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, at least 73,377 people have been killed in Gaza since the conflict began, figures the UN considers reliable. Dozens of additional bodies were believed to remain at the strike site, and thousands of people across the Gaza Strip are unaccounted for, with many presumed to be beneath rubble from extensive Israeli air operations throughout the war.
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