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Nearly three years after they were killed, Palestinians in Gaza buried 112 loved ones whose bodies had been trapped beneath the rubble after an Israeli airstrike in November 2023, during the early months of the genocide. Over the past three weeks, Gaza’s Civil Defense crews recovered their remains after years of being inaccessible under collapsed buildings, while the bodies of 41 others who were killed in the same strike have yet to be found. The dead were laid to rest on August 4.

In what residents described as the largest funeral procession held in Gaza in its history, mourners carried 112 white shrouds wrapped in Palestinian flags, many containing little more than scattered bones, bringing together members of the al-Hassayneh and Abu Sharia families from Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood. The victims had been sheltering inside the home of Mufid al-Hassayneh, a former minister in the Palestinian Authority government, believing the area would be safer from Israeli bombardment. Instead, 153 people were killed in the strike that inevitably came.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defense, said rescue crews spent 17 days searching the site using only limited equipment and resources before completing the recovery.

“The fate of the remaining victims is still unknown,” Basal said. “We do not know where their bodies are. We do not know whether they disintegrated over time, disappeared beneath the rubble, or were consumed by stray animals.”

The tragedy underscored the international community’s responsibility to respond to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, Basal said, especially since well over 8,000 more bodies are estimated to be trapped under the rubble across the Strip.

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According to members of the victims’ families, those recovered included 44 children, 37 women, 23 elders over the age of 60, and seven people with disabilities.

For relatives attending the funeral, the ceremony brought both closure and renewed grief.

Amer Abu Sharia, 49, a physician and a member of one of the........

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