On Tuesday, August 4, thousands of Palestinians gathered in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City to bid farewell to 112 members of the Al-Hasayneh and Abu Sharia families before they were finally laid to rest, almost three years after their tragic deaths. This includes 40 children, 38 women, and seven people with disabilities.

The victims of the two families, who come from one extended clan, were killed in Israeli airstrikes that flattened their residential block in Sabra on November 23, 2023.

According to estimations, the massacre resulted in the killing of at least 308 people. However, less than half of the bodies and remains of all the victims were retrieved after 136 hours of digging through the wreckage.

The Palestinian Civil Defense said that its teams were unable to find 157 bodies still missing under the rubble, with some remains expected to have fused with concrete and rebar or vanished under the intense pressure of the explosions.

While the largest since the beginning of Israel’s genocidal aggression on Gaza, this funeral is not the only one of its kind. Nor will it be the last, as Israel continues to launch assaults on Gaza and prevent rescue teams from carrying out recovery operations.

For almost three years, Palestinians in Gaza have not only endured all types of brutal death at the hands of Israeli Forces, but also have not been able to recover the bodies and remains of their loved ones.

Read more: Being bombed, starved to death, or killed while seeking food: Israel’s options for Palestinians in Gaza

The scene of crowds bidding farewell to members of the same family, friends, or neighbors at a joint funeral has become familiar to Palestinians in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank over the last few decades. Palestinians in both areas say the international community has stood idly by while Israel continues its atrocities.

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