Gaza holds mass funeral for 112 victims of 2023 Sabra strike

Thousands gathered in Gaza City on Tuesday to bury 112 Palestinians whose bodies were recovered after nearly three years beneath the rubble of a November 2023 Israeli airstrike.

The recovered victims belonged to the Abu Sharia and al‑Hasayna families, who lost more than 300 relatives when Israeli warplanes flattened their residential block in the Sabra neighbourhood on 22 November 2023. While the funeral allowed families to perform burial prayers, Gaza authorities estimate that roughly 157 people remain missing, either still buried or unaccounted for.

Media additions

“The only crime of these martyrs was that they remained steadfast and resilient in their homes, believing that these homes would protect them,” Taysir al‑Hassayna told the Associated Press, a sentiment echoed by mourners chanting “God is great” as stretchers passed through the devastated streets.

“This is the greatest remedy and healing for the people to retrieve their martyrs,”

Local leader Nabil Al‑Rifi, via ABC

Recovery efforts were led by Gaza’s Civil Defence agency, which announced that emergency workers spent more than a fortnight digging through the collapsed building to retrieve the 112 bodies. Mahmoud Basal, the agency’s spokesperson, explained that “the rest of the bodies we could not reach. Either they had evaporated [in the blast] or they were decomposed, or the bodies were mixed up and therefore all that we could identify was 112 bodies.” He also noted that “it was 17 days of work, eight hours each day. If we had more than one excavator, it would not have taken us such a long time.”

Activists and human‑rights monitors used the funeral to draw attention to the scale of loss that remains hidden beneath the rubble. Mustafa Barghouti, secretary‑general of the Palestinian National Initiative, warned that the event could be “the largest funeral in Palestinian history.” Mahmoud Hamed al‑Aila called the scene “extracting the bodies of its children from under the rubble after years of genocide,” while Ali Abo Rezeq said the procession turned “massacre statistics into coffins and shrouds.”

Gaza’s health ministry reports that at least 1,252 people have been killed since the ceasefire took effect, while Israeli officials maintain that their strikes target militants linked to the 7 October 2023 attacks.

Disagreement persists over the numbers of those still missing. Zaher al‑Waheidi, head of the health ministry’s records department, told the Associated Press that “at least 7,400 people have been reported by relatives as still being buried in rubble,” and that the true figure is likely “thousands higher.” In contrast, the Palestinian Civil Defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal cited a figure of “about 157 people remain missing.” Both figures appear in the source material and reflect differing methodologies.

The funeral also intersected with high‑level diplomatic activity. Nikolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace official overseeing Gaza’s post‑war transition, met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem to discuss a new disarmament framework. The Board’s statement, quoted in the Australian source, stressed that “the goal is clear… the complete decommissioning of weapons in the Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun to civilian governance.” Meanwhile, Hamas announced it was prepared to lay down its weapons, a claim that Israeli officials have dismissed as premature.

Amid these political moves, everyday life in Gaza remains dire. Most of the two million residents are displaced, living in overcrowded tent camps plagued by rodent infestations and disease outbreaks such as chickenpox. The destruction of over 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure, noted in the Yahoo news report, continues to hamper rescue operations and the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Key timeline

• 22 Nov 2023 – Israeli airstrike flattens a residential block in Sabra, killing more than 300 members of the Abu Sharia and al‑Hasayna families.
• Oct 2025 – Ceasefire agreement goes into effect, allowing limited recovery work.
• Early Aug 2026 – Civil Defence completes a two‑week excavation, retrieving 112 bodies.
• 4 Aug 2026 – Mass funeral held in Gaza City; dozens of families and activists attend.

While the 112 whose remains were finally interred receive a solemn farewell, the funeral starkly illustrates the lingering human toll of a conflict that has left thousands more unaccounted for and a city struggling to rebuild amid ongoing political impasse.