Gaza city: Today, Gaza mourned the remains of 112 people killed by Israel when their homes were bombed in the Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City, during the genocidal war. The remains were recently recovered.
According to National Iraqi News Agency, thousands of Palestinians participated in the funeral procession, which began in the Sabra neighborhood. The bodies and remains, draped in Palestinian flags, were placed near the rubble of the destroyed homes. Following funeral prayers, the remains will be laid to rest in the Baptist Cemetery in the Zeitoun neighborhood, south of Gaza City. This funeral is considered one of the largest in Palestinian history in terms of the number of bodies and remains involved.
The remains belong to members of the Hasayna and Abu Sharia families, killed by the Israeli army in a massacre on November 23, 2023, when a residential block containing their homes was bombed, just before the first ceasefire came into effect on November 24. Civil defense teams completed the recovery of these bodies last Saturday after 136 hours of arduous work removing rubble and searching, an effort that spanned approximately two weeks and was conducted with limited resources, according to a statement issued by the Civil Defense at the time.
The Civil Defense stated that its teams recovered the remains of 112 martyrs, including 40 children, 38 women, and 7 people with disabilities, from the same residential area. The statement quoted the project's general supervisor, Muhammad Abu Dan, as saying that the teams were unable to locate 157 bodies that remained missing under the rubble.
This comes as part of the second phase of the project to recover the bodies of Palestinians, launched by the Civil Defense on July 19th. During a conference held in Gaza City at the time, the spokesperson for the agency, Mahmoud Basal, stated that this phase would be implemented over 800 working hours and would include searching for the remains of missing persons under the rubble of 147 destroyed homes in the Gaza, North, and Central governorates, where it was believed 1,072 bodies were buried.
In November 2025, the first phase of the project commenced, comprising 500 working hours. During this phase, 333 bodies and remains were recovered out of a total of 559 missing persons buried under the rubble of 54 homes and buildings. Limited resources prevented access to approximately 226 bodies that remained under the rubble.
In October 2025, the Government Media Office issued a statistical statement indicating that the number of missing Palestinians since the start of the Israeli offensive in October 2023 had reached approximately 9,500. This figure includes those whose bodies remain buried under the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israel, while the fate of others remains unknown.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement in effect in the Gaza Strip since October 10, 2015, Israel was supposed to allow the entry of necessary heavy equipment and machinery. However, according to government officials and Palestinian factions in the Strip, Israel has reneged on this commitment. Israel has also failed to fulfill its various obligations under the agreement, including halting military operations such as bombings and incursions, opening the crossings, and allowing the entry of the agreed-upon quantities of food, relief, and medical aid.
The agreement was reached two years after a genocidal war waged by Israel with American support, which left more than 73,000 dead, over 174,000 wounded, and caused massive destruction affecting 90 percent of civilian infrastructure, with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at approximately $70 billion.