Gaza Buries 100 Victims Recovered After 2.5 Years Under Rubble

Thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City attended the funeral on Sunday for 100 individuals, including approximately 60 children, whose remains were recently recovered from under the rubble. These victims were killed in Israeli airstrikes on their homes in the Zeitoun neighborhood during the Israeli war, with their bodies lying undiscovered for about two and a half years.

The funeral procession saw the bodies, draped in Palestinian flags, laid out in a square near the destroyed homes before being moved to the 'Al-Madani' cemetery after funeral prayers. The recovery was part of the second phase of the "Restoration of Martyrs' Bodies" project, launched by the Civil Defense in July 2026 to find those missing under Israeli-destroyed buildings.

The recovered remains belong to members of the Arhaim, Al-Balawi, Malaka, Qanbour, Salmi, and Murtaja families. The ceremony was marked by profound grief, as relatives who had been unable to bid farewell to their loved ones for years finally had a chance to do so. Mahmoud Murtaja, who lost his pregnant wife, daughter, and unborn child, described the recovery as reopening old wounds, stating, "It's as if they were martyred yesterday. Here they are before you, but you cannot embrace them or bid them farewell, and all that remains are skulls and bones."

Officials highlighted the immense suffering and the challenges faced in the recovery efforts. Mustafa Qaza'at, a member of the Gaza City Municipal Council, noted the lack of necessary resources could lead to similar scenes elsewhere, emphasizing that the war had erased entire families from civil records. Ra'ed Al-Dahshan, Director of Civil Defense in Gaza City, called the recovery work "arduous and very difficult" due to the scale of destruction and a shortage of heavy equipment, which he identified as the main obstacle to accelerating search and rescue operations.

The first phase of the "Restoration of Martyrs' Bodies" project, which began in late November 2025, recovered around 333 bodies from under 54 homes and buildings. The second phase, which concluded recently, recovered approximately 233 bodies from under 20 destroyed homes. Survivors like Mariam Hassan Al-Balawi recounted losing her husband and four children, with only one daughter surviving, expressing a mix of pain and a sense of closure now that she can bury her family. Jad Allah Arhaim mourned 32 relatives, including many children and women, who were killed in a single strike, emphasizing that they were not just numbers but individuals whose remains lay undiscovered for years.