Gaza Prepares Funeral for 105 Victims of 2023 Israeli Strike as Remains Recovered from Rubble

Palestinian authorities in Gaza have announced that the remains of 105 people killed in one of the deadliest Israeli attacks of the war will be laid to rest on Thursday, more than two years after the strike reduced a residential complex in Gaza City to rubble.

According to the General Directorate of Civil Defence, coffins carrying the recovered remains will be transported in a funeral procession that will include relatives of the deceased, offering families a long-delayed opportunity to mourn their loved ones publicly. The burial is scheduled to take place at the Sheikh Radwan cemetery, located northwest of Gaza City.

The victims died on the afternoon of October 25, 2023, when Israeli air strikes involving at least 20 bombs demolished the seven-storey Al Taj 3 building and destroyed several other residential structures in the Yarmouk Square neighbourhood. The scale of the bombardment left the area so severely damaged that rescue teams were unable to reach many of the bodies for an extended period.

Gaza's civil defence service confirmed that the recovery operation was conducted in coordination with an Egyptian committee, highlighting the role of regional mediators in facilitating humanitarian work amid the ongoing conflict. The operation represents a significant logistical undertaking in a territory where heavy equipment and emergency resources have been severely depleted.

Al Jazeera correspondent Ibrahim Khalili, reporting from Gaza City, noted that the recovery effort ranks as the fifth largest of its kind since Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza in October 2023, measured by the number of bodies retrieved. The sheer volume of remains recovered in a single operation underscores the massive toll exacted on civilians during the early weeks of the war.

Abdul al-Majdalawi, director of civil defence operations, explained that accessing the bodies at the time of the attack had been "impossible," citing the systematic destruction of the equipment needed for such work. "Bulldozers, excavators and other heavy machinery used by civil defence teams in Gaza were directly and deliberately targeted," he stated, describing a situation in which first responders were stripped of the tools necessary to save lives or recover the dead.

The human dimension of the tragedy was captured in the testimony of Osama Sharaf, who lost 37 members of his extended family in the strike on the Al Taj 3 building. He recounted that some remains had been pulled from the wreckage at the beginning of the war, but that a further 16 family members—including his father, mother, and all of his siblings, along with his sister's son—were only recovered on Wednesday. His account illustrates the agonisingly slow process of locating and identifying victims buried beneath layers of concrete and debris.

The delay in recovering the dead has compounded the grief of families who have spent more than two years uncertain about the fate of missing relatives. In many cases, survivors have been forced to live in temporary shelters while the fate of their loved ones remained unresolved, unable to conduct proper burial rites that are central to Palestinian cultural and religious life.

The attack on Yarmouk Square was part of a broader pattern of heavy aerial bombardment across Gaza City and other urban centres in the opening phase of the war. Residential buildings, many of them housing multiple families, were frequently struck without warning, according to Palestinian officials and human rights organisations, leaving civilians with little time to flee.

International humanitarian law requires parties to a conflict to take constant care to spare the civilian population and to distinguish between combatants and civilians. The targeting of residential structures and the destruction of civilian infrastructure, including emergency response equipment, has drawn scrutiny from rights groups and international bodies, who have repeatedly called for independent investigations into alleged violations.

The recovery of the remains also points to the broader collapse of Gaza's civil defence and medical infrastructure. With hospitals overwhelmed, ambulances destroyed, and heavy machinery rendered inoperable, local teams have struggled to respond to the scale of destruction. The involvement of an Egyptian committee reflects the limited but critical role that neighbouring states have played in supporting search-and-recovery missions.

For the families of the 105 victims, Thursday's funeral will provide a measure of closure after years of waiting. Yet the ceremony also serves as a stark reminder of the war's enduring impact on Gaza's social fabric, where entire extended families have been erased and survivors must navigate life amid loss, displacement, and the physical ruins of their former neighbourhoods.

The burial at Sheikh Radwan cemetery will draw mourners from across Gaza City, many of whom will carry photographs of the deceased and recite prayers for the martyrs. Such processions have become a recurring feature of life in Gaza over the past two years, as communities repeatedly gather to honour the dead even as the conflict continues to exact new casualties.

As the coffins are lowered into the ground, the event is likely to renew calls from Palestinian officials and international observers for accountability and for a lasting ceasefire. The recovery of these 105 bodies adds a concrete, documented chapter to the broader record of civilian harm in the war, one that bereaved families say must not be forgotten.