Overview
- Rescue teams recovered 112 bodies from rubble this week, and hundreds attended a mass funeral in Gaza City on Tuesday to bury victims of the November 22, 2023 Sabra airstrike.
- Authorities said the remains came from the Abu Sharia and Al Hasayna families and included large numbers of children, with Gaza Civil Defense reporting about 40 children among the dead.
- The recent recoveries were possible after Israel permitted limited use of heavy machinery, including an excavator and wheeled shovel rented by the ICRC, to speed excavations in damaged residential blocks.
- Diplomatically, President Trump’s U.S. plan to coordinate phased disarmament of Hamas with an Israeli withdrawal is stalled after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rejected the draft and said Israeli forces will not pull back until Hamas is fully disarmed.
- Rights monitors warn that systematic rubble removal and processing may be destroying forensic evidence needed for accountability, while Gaza officials say thousands of people remain presumed buried under debris, which will complicate identification, justice and reconstruction efforts.