On Tuesday, funeral ceremonies began in the Gaza Strip for the bodies and remains of 112 people killed by Israel when their homes were bombed on top of them in the Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City, during the genocidal war, and whose remains were recently recovered.
Thousands of Palestinians participated in the ceremony, which began in the Sabra neighborhood, where the bodies and remains, draped in Palestinian flags, were placed near the ruins of destroyed homes.
The bodies and remains are scheduled to be buried in the “Baptist” cemetery in the Zeitoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City, after the funeral prayer is performed over them.
This funeral is one of the largest funerals in the history of Palestine in terms of the number of bodies and remains being carried in procession.
The bodies and remains belong to members of the Al-Hasayna and Abu Sharia families, who were killed by the Israeli army in a massacre committed on November 23, 2023, when a residential block containing their homes was bombed with them on their heads, before the first truce came into effect on the 24th of the same month.
Civil defense teams finished recovering these bodies on Saturday, after 136 hours of “arduous” work in removing rubble and searching, which extended over about two weeks, amid limited capabilities, according to a statement from the agency at the time.
The Civil Defense said in its statement that its crews were able to recover “the bodies and remains of 112 martyrs, including the bodies of 40 children, 38 women and 7 people with special needs,” from the same residential block.
The statement quoted the project's general supervisor, Mohammed Abu Dan, as saying that "the teams were unable to find 157 bodies that were lost under the rubble and no trace of them was found."
This comes as part of the second phase of the project to recover the bodies of Palestinians, which was launched by the Civil Defense on July 19.
The spokesman for the agency, Mahmoud Basal, said during a conference held in Gaza City at the time that this phase would be carried out “over 800 working hours, and includes searching for the bodies of missing persons under the rubble of 147 destroyed houses in the Gaza, North and Central governorates, under which it is believed that there are 1072 bodies.”
In November 2025, the first phase of the project was launched with 500 working hours, during which 333 bodies and remains were recovered out of 559 missing bodies under the rubble of 54 houses and buildings, while the lack of capabilities prevented access to about 226 bodies that were still under the rubble.
In October 2025, the Government Media Office said in a statistical statement that the number of missing Palestinians since the start of the Israeli war of extermination in October 2023 had reached about 9,500, including those whose bodies are still under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel, and others whose fate is still unknown.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in effect in the Gaza Strip since October 10, 2025, Israel was supposed to allow the entry of the necessary heavy equipment and machinery, but it reneged on that, according to government agencies and Palestinian factions in the Strip.
Israel also reneged on its various commitments stipulated in the agreement, including halting military operations such as bombing and incursions, opening crossings, and allowing the entry of agreed-upon quantities of food, relief, and medical aid.
The Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip announced on Tuesday that the death toll from the genocide committed by Israel has risen to 73,377, after two Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours.
