Hundreds of mourners have gathered in Gaza City for a mass funeral to bury 112 members of the Abu Sharia and Al-Husaina families, whose bodies were recovered after remaining trapped beneath the rubble of their homes for more than two and a half years following an Israeli air strike.
Widely reported as the largest mass funeral in Gaza, the funeral comes after civil defence teams were finally able to reach the site of a Nov. 22, 2023, Israeli attack. The strike targeted three inhabited homes in the Sabra neighbourhood of south-central Gaza City, killing 308 people, including 44 children, 37 women, and 10 people with disabilities, who remained entombed beneath the concrete ever since.
Youssef Abu Sharia, who lost several relatives in the strike, said he managed to recover some of his family members nearly 1,000 days after their home was hit, while others remain missing.
“After a long wait, I will finally be able to bury and bid farewell to those I was able to retrieve,” Abu Sharia told Al Manassa .
Salem Elrayyes/Al Manassa, 2026
Funeral prayers held for 112 members of the Abu Sharia and Al-Hasaina families following their extraction from beneath destroyed homes in downtown Gaza City, August 4, 2026. In an open courtyard near the site of the attack, mourners laid out the bodies, wrapped in Palestinian flags, on the ground. Relatives showered the remains with roses and rice—a Palestinian tradition honoring the dead as if preparing a groom for his wedding day.
Factional and national Palestinian figures, alongside leaders from local clans and families across the Gaza Strip, joined the crowd in performing funeral prayers before the bodies were taken for burial at the Al-Ahli Baptist Cemetery.
Civil Defense crews retrieved the remains following a dayslong search and debris-clearing operation during July. On Aug. 1, crews announced the conclusion of their work after 136 consecutive hours of searching and recovering bodies.
Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense, told Al Manassa that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) funded the clearing operations. He noted that crews were able to clear debris and search for remains under only a limited number of homes.
Basal explained that despite significant operational challenges, and after days of searching for 308 victims, crews recovered “only 112 bodies, including 40 children.”
“The fate of the rest remains unknown, as intense bombardment caused their bodies to disappear,” Basal said.
Funeral of 112 slain individuals from two families in Gaza, Aug. 4, 2026 Basal added that the three homes sheltering the Abu Sharia and Al-Husaina families are not the only ones containing unrecovered bodies from the war.
He stated that dozens of victims remain beneath targeted buildings and called on international organizations to provide additional equipment to accelerate retrieval efforts. Basal estimated that approximately 8,000 victims remain under rubble across various areas of the Gaza Strip.
For two and a half years, emergency service crews were unable to reach the site due to intensified Israeli bombardment and the targeting of Civil Defense personnel while performing humanitarian tasks.
Israeli military actions have continued across the Gaza Strip despite a ceasefire agreement signed last October. Strikes have impacted not only residential homes, but also tent encampments , hospitals and their vicinity, and displacement zones, forcing families into repeated displacement even within areas where they sought shelter after losing their homes.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, Israeli strikes have killed approximately 1,250 people since the ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 11, while Civil Defense crews have retrieved 804 bodies during the same period. The total cumulative toll since the start of the genocide on Oct. 7, 2023, stands at 73,375 dead and 174,220 injured.
