Gaza buries the remains of 100 Palestinians, including 62 children

Palestinians on Sunday held a mass funeral for 100 people, including 62 children, whose remains were recovered from the rubble of buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes in Gaza City.

The bodies, recovered from the al-Zeitoun neighbourhood, included 55 members of the Malaka family who were killed in an Israeli air strike in November 2023, according to Gaza’s civil defence.

The remaining victims belonged to the Irahem, Qanbour, Balawi and Dahdouh families.

Al Jazeera reported that no complete bodies had been recovered from the site, saying Israeli forces had hindered the recovery process.

Hundreds of people, including relatives and local residents, gathered outside Imam al-Shafi Mosque in al-Zeitoun for the funeral procession, bidding farewell to their loved ones, who were shrouded in Palestinian flags.

Carrying the bodies, mourners marched to al-Maamadani cemetery in central Gaza City, where they were laid to rest in collective graves.

In recent months, Palestinian civil defence teams have led efforts to recover bodies across the territory.

However, the process has been slow due to a lack of heavy equipment, much of which was destroyed or blocked by Israel from entering Gaza.

At least 73,651 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since 7 October 2023, according to Gaza health authorities. Thousands of bodies remain trapped beneath the rubble across Gaza.

Omar Nofal, head of Gaza’s government committee for missing persons, told Middle East Eye that around 6,000 people had been officially registered as missing in the Gaza Strip since the war began.

However, he said the true figure was likely closer to 15,000, with many still believed to be buried beneath collapsed buildings across the territory.

In August, Palestinians buried the remains of 112 members of the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families who were killed in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood in November 2023. The attack was one of the deadliest single-strike casualty events of the two-year genocide.

Israeli warplanes flattened an entire residential block where hundreds of members of the Abu Shari'a and al-Hasayna clan had been living and sheltering.

More than 300 people were killed, including 44 children, 37 women and at least 10 people with disabilities.

Most remained buried beneath the collapsed buildings.

Efforts to recover bodies from the rubble were halted in the early months of the war because search-and-rescue teams lacked the heavy equipment needed for the operation, which had been destroyed or blocked from entering Gaza by Israel.