GAZA PREPARES FOR LARGEST MASS FUNERAL SINCE START OF WAR

Tue 04 August 2026:

Gaza City is preparing on Tuesday for the mass funeral of 112 Palestinians from the Abu Sharia and Al-Hasayna families, in what Palestinian sources describe as one of the largest funerals held in the Gaza Strip since the war began.

According to the announced information, the bodies were recovered from a single site. The combined death toll and number of people still missing from the two families at that location stands at 308, making it one of the deadliest incidents resulting from Israeli bombardment of the territory.

The funeral is expected to draw large crowds of relatives and local residents amid deep grief across the Gaza Strip, as search efforts continue to recover missing people and bodies from beneath the rubble in heavily destroyed areas.

The funeral comes months after rescue teams were unable to reach the site because of intense military operations and widespread destruction. Civil defence and rescue crews were only recently able to recover some of the bodies for burial.

Mass funeral in Gaza City of 112 killed in same 2023 Israeli attack

By Tareq Abu Azzoum reporting from Deir el-Balah

The funeral we are witnessing today in Gaza City lays bare a devastating tragedy for the people who are still trapped under the debris of their destroyed neighbourhoods.

In the coming hours, as we receive confirmation from the Gaza Civil Defence and the Ministry of Health, Palestinians will lay to rest the remains of 112 individuals from the Abu Shariah and Hassayna families. Both are extended families living in the Sabra neighbourhood, in the southern part of Gaza City … Both families have lived under repeated Israeli attacks.

As far as we know, they were among 308 Palestinians killed in one day in Gaza City, including 40 women, 30 children and 7 people with disabilities.

We have heard from Gaza Civil Defence teams that they were unable to retrieve them from beneath the rubble due to the lack of fuel and a significant shortage of rescue equipment … We saw how Civil Defence teams and local communities banded together, using very primitive tools, to find any remains and give them a dignified burial.

This funeral shows us how devastating the cost of this genocide has been, as there are still thousands of people trapped under the wreckage of their destroyed buildings, specifically in areas that have been seen as active war zones, such as the eastern parts of Gaza City.

Families living in Gaza City have told us they’ve got relatives who are still under the rubble of their destroyed homes; they were unable to retrieve them. One of the bleakest testimonies we have heard from Civil Defence forces is that they hear the voices of those who are trapped for days, but later those voices vanish.

Civil defence teams and other specialised crews in Gaza continue to recover bodies from the rubble of destroyed buildings despite limited resources and shortages of equipment and fuel. Local authorities say thousands of people remain missing beneath the debris across the territory.

The ongoing war has caused widespread destruction to residential neighbourhoods and infrastructure. Rescue teams continue to face major challenges in reaching many locations because of the scale of the devastation and ongoing security risks, delaying the recovery of many victims’ bodies for months.

UN agencies and humanitarian organisations have warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip as military operations continue, large numbers of people remain displaced, and health and living conditions deteriorate. They have called for improved access for rescue teams and humanitarian aid, enabling search operations to continue and victims to be buried in accordance with humanitarian procedures.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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