Gaza holds mass funeral for 50 recovered after three-year war
Fifty Palestinians killed in early Israel-Hamas war strikes were buried in Gaza City after remains were recovered from rubble.
Gaza City witnessed a mass funeral on Thursday as the remains of 50 Palestinians, killed during the initial months of the Israel-Hamas war, were laid to rest. The bodies, recovered recently from beneath the rubble, were carried through streets strewn with debris as mourners held portraits of the deceased.
The funeral included members of several families who died in strikes in late 2023. Among them were 12 members of the Batnigi family, killed in November 2023, and victims of December strikes, including 17 members of the Awafiri family and 21 members of the Karam, Haraz, and Al-Aaf families, who perished in the same building.
Lina Karam, who lost her father and other relatives, spoke of the long wait for closure. "Today, we recovered our martyrs from the rubble after three years of war, with the help of the civil defense," she said. "After three years of anguish, pain and torture, we were able to pray over them and bury them."
Mohammad Al-Sawafiri, another relative, described the ordeal of waiting to retrieve all the dead. "The number of dead is 28. In the first moments, we were able to recover 11 during the strike," he said. "We then waited 990 days to recover the rest. Now, thank God, we feel relieved after recovering them."
The burials come amid ongoing hostilities. On Wednesday, at least 10 people were killed in two Israeli strikes in Gaza, according to local hospitals and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Israel's military said it targeted Hamas militants involved in the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw 251 abducted.
The nearly three-year war has killed more than 73,400 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, whose figures are considered generally reliable by U.N. agencies. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and militants but reports that women and children account for about half the casualties.
Efforts by the U.S. to advance a tenuous ceasefire in the enclave, home to over 2 million Palestinians, appear to be stalling.