In what might be the most heartbreaking episode of 'better late than never,' Gaza City witnessed a mass funeral for 112 Palestinians, mostly women and children, who perished in an Israeli strike on a residential block back in November 2023. The bodies, belonging to the Abu Sharia and Hassayna families, were only recently dug out from under the rubble after a two-week operation.
Dramatic footage showed the remains lined up in neat rows, each draped in a Palestinian flag, some with photos of the deceased, as grieving relatives carried them away. It's being called the biggest funeral of its kind in Gaza, which is saying something given the scale of tragedy there.
One mourner, Ali Abu Sharia, summed up the collective sentiment: 'I think this is a feeling that was supposed [to be felt], a feeling of pain, grief and loss. After we managed to retrieve them and bury them, perhaps we can be partially relieved despite the pain of loss and all we're still living through.'
Among the dead were 40 children, 38 women, and seven people with disabilities. They were killed on 22 November 2023, a day of heavy bombardment six weeks after the 7 October Hamas-led assault on southern Israel that killed 1,200 and took 251 hostages. The BBC has asked the Israel Defense Forces for details on what was targeted, but unsurprisingly, they haven't responded yet.
The death toll in Gaza has now surpassed 73,377, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures the UN considers reliable. The recovery effort was led by Civil Defence, operating under Hamas, with support from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Patrick Griffiths, ICRC spokesperson, explained their role: 'We provide material support - literally the gloves, shovels, protective equipment and body bags they use. We provide training, supporting them to do their work safely, in line with professional practice ensuring the deceased are treated with dignity. And we've supported them by renting - for hundreds of hours - two of the only excavators available for this work in Gaza.'
He added, 'It's not an answer any family wants to receive - confirmation that your loved one has been killed. But it's essential towards them receiving closure and being able to mourn their loss in their own way.'
Last month, the BBC filmed the start of the operation. A single bulldozer picked through the rubble, then more delicate work by hand. Civil Defence spokesman Mohammed Basel described the scene: 'This multi-storey building has been levelled. There were maybe more than 180 civilians inside. Most of them, around 90%, were killed. On that day [of the strikes], the Civil Defence crews couldn't get to the site because it needed co-ordination [with Israel via a third party such as the ICRC] and there was great danger in reaching the area.'
Relatives guided the recovery crews, having retrieved what they could immediately after the attack and now relieved to give others a proper burial. Nahed al-Hassayna showed the BBC the rubble of his family's living room, holding up possessions of two young relatives: 'The kids - what did they do? This was a school backpack for Omar, and this was Ibrahim's shoe. Why? Why were they killed?'
Yousef Abu Sharia, standing nearby, said, 'I'm the sole survivor of my family. Today, I'm talking to you [as] the one who lost my mother, my father, my uncle and my cousins and all my family. I lost them under this rubble.'
Dozens more bodies are believed to be still under the site, and across Gaza, thousands remain unaccounted for, their remains likely beneath the rubble of intense Israeli air strikes.