Palestinians held a funeral procession on Sunday for 100 people whose bodies were recovered from beneath the rubble of homes destroyed in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood during Israel’s war on the enclave.
Thousands attended, including relatives of the victims, community leaders and political representatives. The bodies and human remains were placed near the ruins and covered with Palestinian flags.
The ceremony featured memorial speeches by Gaza’s Civil Defence, whose teams led the recovery efforts, along with representatives of the victims’ families and other community figures.
Following funeral prayers, the bodies and remains were expected to be buried at Al-Ahli Cemetery in Zeitoun.
Civil Defense teams recovered the victims in recent days as part of the second stage of a project launched on July 19 to locate Palestinians still buried beneath buildings destroyed during the Israeli assault.
Local authorities said the victims were members of the Rahim, Balawi, Malaka, Qanbour and Salmi families. They were killed when Israeli forces struck several residential homes approximately two and a half years ago.
The recovery effort is being conducted with severely limited resources, including just a small number of excavators and aging equipment. Israel continues to restrict the entry of heavy machinery and other equipment required to search through the rubble.
According to an Anadolu tally, Sunday’s ceremony was among the largest funerals in Palestinian history by the number of bodies and remains buried. A similar ceremony took place in early August for 112 Palestinians recovered from destroyed homes in Gaza City’s Sabra neighborhood.
The second phase of the recovery project includes 800 hours of work at 147 destroyed homes in Gaza City and the northern and central areas of the enclave. Authorities believe 1,072 bodies remain buried there.
The first phase began in late November 2025 and involved 500 hours of recovery work. Civil Defense teams retrieved approximately 333 bodies and remains from an estimated 559 people missing beneath the rubble of 54 homes and buildings.
Under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which has been in effect since Oct. 10, 2025, Israel was expected to permit the entry of the heavy machinery and equipment needed for the recovery operations, according to Palestinian authorities in Gaza.
The ceasefire followed nearly two years of Israeli attacks on Gaza that killed more than 73,000 Palestinians and wounded over 174,000, while destroying or damaging large portions of the enclave’s civilian infrastructure.
