Gaza City recently witnessed a solemn mass funeral for 112 people, all members of the same extended family, whose remains were recovered from the rubble of a residential compound nearly three years after an Israeli military strike. Each body, draped in a Palestinian flag, was laid out in the morning sun.
The large family group, identified as the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan, included dozens of women and children. They died on November 23, 2023, during the second month of the ongoing conflict, when an Israeli military strike impacted their home in Gaza City, according to Gaza's Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.
Recovery teams were only able to access the site in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City in mid-July of this year. Over the subsequent two weeks, they exhumed and collected the decomposed remains.
Gaza authorities have characterized this as the largest mass funeral in the strip since October 7, 2023. That date marked the beginning of fierce Israeli retribution following an incursion by Hamas-led militants into southern Israel, an escalation that Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry reports has resulted in the deaths of over 70,000 Palestinians in the nearly three years since.
During the service, mourners showered flower petals over the covered bodies, while women and children observed from atop partially demolished buildings surrounding the earthen square. A banner displaying the faces of dozens of children served as a backdrop for a speech delivered by Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Defense.
Basal questioned the international community during his address, asking, "O nation, why are children getting killed in Gaza? Why are women getting killed in Gaza? Why are massacres committed against innocents in Gaza?" The words "Stop the genocide in Gaza" were visibly scrawled on his podium in both Arabic and English.
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