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Sabra funeral after strikes
A mass funeral was held in Gaza City for 112 Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes on the Sabra neighborhood, with Gaza’s Civil Defense agency saying more than 150 bodies remained trapped beneath the concrete of the destroyed building.
“The Civil Defense believed more than 150 bodies remain trapped beneath the concrete”
The ABC reported that the Civil Defense spent more than a fortnight digging through what was left of a residential block destroyed in an Israeli attack in November 2023, and that it retrieved 112 bodies while the rest could not be reached because they had “evaporated [in the blast]” or were decomposed or mixed up.
Al Jazeera said thousands gathered on Tuesday to bury the remains of 112 members of the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families after rescue teams recovered their bodies from the site of a November 2023 Israeli attack in Sabra.
The BBC described the funeral as the biggest of its kind in Gaza, with dramatic footage showing remains lined up in rows, each victim covered with a Palestinian flag and some with a photo of the dead, before relatives carried them away.
In the same BBC account, the attack that killed the families was on 22 November 2023, and the BBC said the bodies were recovered from under the rubble in a two-week-long operation.
Voices, grief, and accusations
Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal described the funeral as “set for an exceptional and painful scene,” and Al Jazeera said the funeral procession reflected the scale of the human losses suffered by Palestinian families who waited years to bury relatives.
Al Jazeera also quoted Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, describing the funeral as potentially being “the largest funeral in Palestinian history,” while Palestinian researcher Mahmoud Hamed al-Aila said Gaza was “extracting the bodies of its children from under the rubble after years of genocide.”
In the ABC report, local leader Nabil Al-Rifi told the broadcaster, “This is the greatest remedy and healing for the people to retrieve their martyrs,” as mourners carried the bodies through Gaza City.
The BBC included mourner Ali Abu Sharia saying, “After we managed to retrieve them and bury them, perhaps we can be partially relieved despite the pain of loss and all we're still living through.”
What remains and what’s at risk
The funeral unfolded as debate over the future of Gaza continued, after Hamas announced it was prepared to lay down its weapons, while the ABC said the announcement came following days of deadly attacks by Israeli forces killing around 20 Palestinians, including children.
“Hamas it was prepared to lay down its weapons”
In the ABC account, Hamas’ disarmament position was linked to conditions that Israel stop attacks on Gaza and withdraw its forces from large swathes of territory, and the ABC said Israel has repeatedly rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza.
Al Jazeera said Palestinian authorities estimate about 157 people remain missing, either still beneath the rubble or otherwise unaccounted for, and it added that the fate of thousands of other Palestinian families still waiting to recover remains was highlighted by the funeral.
The BBC reported that dozens more bodies were yet to be recovered at the site and that across the Gaza Strip thousands more people were unaccounted for, with remains of many thought to be under rubble left by intense Israeli air strikes during the war.
The BBC also quoted ICRC spokesperson Patrick Griffiths describing the support provided to Civil Defence teams, including “gloves, shovels, protective equipment and body bags,” and said the recovery work was essential for families to receive closure and mourn.
