Overview
- The mass burial on Tuesday followed the recovery of 112 sets of remains from a Nov. 22, 2023 Israeli air strike that flattened a residential block in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood.
- Civil Defence teams resumed searches on July 14 using limited equipment and said they worked 17 days to recover the 112 bodies, including dozens of children.
- Gaza officials list roughly 6,000 people as officially missing while saying the true total may be closer to 15,000, and authorities say many more remain believed buried under collapsed buildings.
- Rescue work was only possible because of a fragile ceasefire that took effect in October, but teams say they remain under-equipped and political and security constraints limit wider recoveries and reconstruction.
- Families said the burials brought relief and renewed grief, many of the dead were from the same clans and some held foreign citizenship, and the recoveries are likely to increase calls for more access, resources and accountability.