Gaza holds mass funeral for extended family recovered from wartime rubble

In Gaza City, row after row of human remains — 112 people in all, and hauntingly from the same extended family — were laid in the morning sun, each draped in a Palestinian flag.This large family group, including dozens of women and children from the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan in Gaza City, died nearly three years ago. An Israeli military strike hit the clan's residential compound in the second month of the war, on Nov. 23, 2023, according to Gaza's Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.Israel's military has not responded to a request for comment about the strike, but said throughout the conflict that it targeted militants, accusing Hamas of operating in areas that put civilians at risk. Recovery teams were only able to access the site in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City in mid-July, exhuming and collecting decomposed remains over the last two weeks of the month. A mass funeral is held for over 100 members of the Abu Sharia and Al-Hasayna families, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble of their homes after an attack earlier in the war, on Aug. 4, 2026, in Gaza City. Omar Ashtawy / Getty Images Gaza authorities described this as the ...