Gaza holds mass funeral for 112 members of Al-Hassayna clan recovered from rubble nearly three years after Israeli strike

The recovery

Gaza's civil defence spent 17 days in July combing through the wreckage of a residential block in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City, recovering the decomposed remains of 112 people. The victims were members of the extended Al-Hassayna and Abu Sharia families, killed when Israeli warplanes struck the building on 22 November 2023. Around half of the dead were recovered and buried soon after the attack by people digging through smouldering rubble with bare hands and basic tools, but 153 bodies stayed trapped under concrete and twisted steel until now. The team that finally reached them numbered 40 workers.

Mohammad Al-Mughayyir, director of operations for the civil defence, said crews often had to dig with their bare hands. The recovery effort was aided by two excavators rented from Gaza's private sector by the International Committee of the Red Cross. ICRC spokesman Pat Griffiths confirmed the organisation had hired the machines, describing them as two of the only excavators available for this work in Gaza.

In some cases, complete skeletons remained intact, held together only by clothing.

The funeral

Hundreds of mourners gathered on Tuesday at a cleared plot of land between flattened buildings, where more than 100 coffins draped in Palestinian flags were arranged in rows. Photographs of the dead, men, women and children, were displayed on banners. Men lifted the stretchers and carried them through rubble-lined streets for burial in a nearby cemetery. Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal described the procession as one of the largest mass funerals held in the territory during the war.

We came to mourn our martyrs, children, women and the elderly. This is a funeral for the Palestinian people, because they are victims. People are under the rubble, and they did not fight or bear weapons.

Taysir Al-Hassayna, a surviving family member, said the day had reopened wounds three years after the massacre. Palestinian authorities say 308 members of the extended family were killed in the November 2023 attack. Accounts of how many are left do not agree. On the civil defence figure of 153 still under the rubble, this recovery would leave 41 unaccounted for, while Colonel Mohammed Abu Dan of the civil defence said 157 bodies believed to lie at the site have still not been found.

The missing thousands

Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Gaza health ministry's records department, told the Associated Press that at least 7,400 people have been reported by relatives as still buried under rubble across the strip. He added that the true number is probably thousands higher because some strikes killed entire families, leaving no one to report them missing. Civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal put the figure at more than 8,000 bodies still trapped.

The true number is probably thousands higher because some strikes killed entire families, leaving no loved ones to report them missing.

War and ceasefire

The 22 November 2023 strike on the Sabra apartment block was one of the deadliest single attacks of the Gaza war. The conflict began after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, killing 1,221 people and taking 251 hostages, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures. Israel's retaliatory campaign has killed more than 73,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, whose figures the United Nations considers reliable.

A ceasefire took hold in October 2025, but Israeli strikes have continued. The Gaza health ministry says at least 1,252 people have been killed since the truce came into effect. At least 26 Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes over the weekend, despite the announcement of a deal intended to solidify the second phase of the ceasefire. The deal, hailed by US President Donald Trump as a historic agreement, is intended to lead to Hamas disarming and Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza. Qatari mediators have accused Benjamin Netanyahu's government of deliberately obstructing the agreement.

International findings

A UN commission, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. In June 2026, a UN commission found that Israel was continuing to commit genocide and that its security forces deliberately targeted and killed Palestinian children. Israeli forces currently control nearly 70 percent of the territory, and progress on permanently ending the war has stalled.