Arabic version: مدينة غزة تشيع 50 انتُشلت جثامينهم من تحت الأنقاض

According to Al Jazeera, at least 50 Palestinians whose bodies were recently retrieved from rubble were laid to rest in Gaza City in a mass funeral. The victims, from the al-Sawafiri, al-Batniji and Gharbiya families, were recovered weeks after search and rescue teams located them at sites of Israeli air strikes from the early months of the war.

The bodies were recovered from Tal al-Hawa, Zeitoun, Sabra, Sheikh Radwan and Shati, Al Jazeera correspondent Ghazi al-Aloul reported. The war began in October 2023. Families of other missing people are still searching beneath collapsed buildings, while Gaza’s Civil Defence estimates that about 8,000 Palestinians remain missing and are believed to be buried under rubble.

Search teams are working in extremely difficult conditions and have only one excavator, al-Aloul said, slowing recovery efforts. Munir al-Bursh, director general of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, called for heavy machinery, search and recovery equipment, and forensic medicine supplies to be allowed into Gaza to help retrieve and identify victims.

The funeral took place during what Al Jazeera described as ongoing Israeli violations of a ceasefire agreement that took effect in October. As of Wednesday, Israeli attacks had killed at least 1,266 Palestinians and injured 4,200 others since the agreement began, the report said. More than two years of war have killed at least 73,400 Palestinians and wounded more than 174,300, while about 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed.

On August 4, thousands buried the remains of 112 members of the Abu Sharia and al-Hasayna families, recovered from the site of a November 2023 Israeli attack in Sabra. Separately, a Hamas delegation led by Khalil al-Hayya met Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani in Doha to discuss developments in Gaza.