Photos: Historic funeral held for 112 recovered from Gaza rubble

This is the latest dispatch from Rizek Abdel Jawad, a photojournalist based in Gaza City who frequently contributes to the NB Media Co-op.

The remains of more than 100 people recently found under the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Sabra neighbourhood of Gaza City were laid to rest on Tuesday in a historic funeral procession.

Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip attended the funeral procession for 112 victims whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble of the destroyed buildings.

The skeletal remains, belonging to members of the Al-Hasayna and Abu Sharia families, were placed in white plastic shrouds and draped in Palestinian flags. The scene was profoundly moving, reflecting the sheer number of victims and the immense grief of their families.

Relatives and friends of the victims, including women and children, wept openly and scattered rose petals on the bodies, which lay in a large square surrounded by the ruins of buildings. The mourners chanted religious slogans.

Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for the Civil Defence in Gaza, stated that this one of the largest funerals ever seen in the Gaza Strip, and among the biggest in the history of the Palestinian cause over the past decade.

He said that Civil Defence teams exerted tremendous efforts over several days to recover the bodies, while others remain trapped under the rubble.

Basal called on humanitarian and international organizations to pressure Israeli authorities to allow the entry of heavy equipment and machinery to address the scale of the destruction and continue the recovery of thousands of victims from under the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Gaza Strip.

On August 1, Civil Defence announced the conclusion of search operations after two weeks of intensive efforts in a residential area destroyed by the Israeli military on November 23, 2023.

In a press statement, Civil Defence stated that the arduous search operations took approximately 136 hours spread over 15 days, during which the bodies of 40 children and 38 women were recovered, in addition to seven people with disabilities. However, 157 other missing persons remain unaccounted for and are still trapped under the rubble or otherwise missing.

This operation was part of the second phase of the project to recover bodies in the Gaza Strip, launched by Civil Defence on July 19. This phase, which will last 800 working hours, involves searching for the remains of missing persons under the rubble of 147 destroyed homes in Gaza City, the northern Gaza Strip, and the central Gaza Strip. It is believed that 1,072 bodies remain buried beneath these ruins.

The first phase of the project began in November 2025, involving 500 working hours during which 333 bodies and remains were recovered out of 559 missing persons believed to be buried under the rubble of 54 homes and buildings.

The Government Media Office in Gaza has previously stated that the number of missing persons since the start of the Israeli war on October 7, 2023 has reached approximately 9,500, including those whose bodies remain buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

This text was originally written in Arabic. The English version was produced using translation software.

Rizek Abdel Jawad is a photojournalist based in Gaza City. To see more of his work, follow him on Instagram and Facebook. He is part of the Connecting Gaza initiative, which helps families in Gaza survive. You can support them by going to www.connectinggaza.org/donate.