Families in Gaza City performed a mass funeral on Thursday for 105 Palestinians whose remains were recovered from the rubble of a residential block destroyed during an October 2023 attack, marking one of the largest recovery operations since the conflict began.
Gaza City Mourns 105 Victims Recovered From Rubble
Hundreds of mourners gathered on Thursday to perform funeral prayers over the remains of 105 individuals, wrapped in Palestinian flags. The victims lost their lives during an Israeli attack that leveled the Al Taj residential towers in the Yarmouk Square neighborhood in October 2023.
Civil defense operations director Abdul al-Majdalawi stated that reaching the bodies immediately following the initial strike proved impossible because bulldozers and heavy machinery were directly targeted. The recent recovery required a painstaking 17-day search operation conducted by Civil Defense teams in coordination with an Egyptian committee, as reported by Menafn.
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal called for greater protection of civilians in Gaza while speaking about the operation. Al Jazeera correspondent Ibrahim al-Khalili reported from Gaza City that the operation ranked as the fifth-largest of its kind since the war began in terms of the number of bodies recovered. Fawaz Ziyara, who is both a survivor and a relative of victims, stated that about 300 people were killed when the residential block was struck. Official data indicate that the bodies of approximately 8,000 Palestinians remain trapped under the rubble across the enclave. Rescue crews arranged the wrapped bodies in rows as relatives came to the ruined Al-Taj district to recognize and say goodbye to their loved ones.
Families Find Painful Closure After Years Of Waiting
For families who spent years searching for missing relatives, the recovery brought a painful yet necessary sense of closure.
We recovered some of them at the beginning of the war, and today [Wednesday], 16 more were recovered, including my father, my mother and all of my siblings. My sister’s son was also there with them.
Osama Sharaf, via Al Jazeera
Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal emphasized the humanity of those lost, stating that these individuals are civilians with the fundamental right to live in peace and safety. UN officials estimate that roughly 8,000 bodies remain trapped beneath rubble across the Gaza Strip due to severe shortages of heavy equipment and ongoing access restrictions. Between November 2025 and September 2026, Civil Defense teams recovered more than 630 bodies and human remains from destroyed buildings across Gaza.
Reconstruction Challenges and Ongoing Casualties Amid the Truce
Jaco Cilliers, the special representative for the United Nations Development Programme in Palestine, noted that Gaza contains vast amounts of rubble—amounting to roughly 20 times the debris generated across all global wars over the past 18 years. Recovery and reconstruction efforts face severe bottlenecks because Israeli authorities ban essential non-food equipment under dual-use restrictions. Clearing out the bulk of the debris across the Gaza Strip could take between seven to 10 years at a minimum and require billions of dollars, according to United Nations projections, with overall rebuilding expenses calculated at roughly $70 billion.
Gaza health authorities report that at least 1,431 Palestinians have been killed and 5,026 others injured by ongoing attacks since the truce began, bringing the total death toll since October 2023 to more than 74,000 Palestinians killed and over 175,000 injured, with roughly 90% of the enclave’s infrastructure destroyed.
Sultan Barakat told Al Jazeera that the international community has failed to hold Israel accountable or ensure adequate street security since a ceasefire took effect in October 2025.
