Mass funeral held in Gaza City after 105 bodies recovered from rubble

Hundreds of mourners in Gaza City held a vigil on Wednesday for 105 people killed during Israel's war on the Palestinian territory.  

Their bodies were recovered in the past several days from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes during the almost three-year war.

The victims were "targeted at the beginning of the Israeli war of extermination on Gaza on 25 October 2023, and remained buried under the rubble due to the difficulty of reaching them," said Fawaz Ziyara, who came to mourn some of his relatives.

The remains of the deceased were wrapped in white bags and draped with Palestinian flags. Plastic candles and red lights from the ambulance trucks provided lighting.

Attendees gathered around the bodies, some piled atop the rubble their loved ones were originally found in.

"Today, they managed to bring them out, allowing us to see them and bid them farewell," said Taghreed Hinnawi, the mother of a victim. "We are unable to heal or move past the moment of my daughter’s martyrdom."

Mass funerals have become more common in Gaza, where Israel has not allowed in the heavy machinery needed to clear the rubble of destroyed buildings and recover the dead.

Mourners in central Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp held a mass funeral Tuesday for nearly 50 people killed during the war.

Earlier this month, the United Nations estimated that more than 8,000 bodies remain buried under the rubble.

More than 74,000 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October 2023, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Israel has continued to launch strikes on the Palestinian territory despite the ceasefire that took effect in October 2025.

Several international NGOs as well as a UN commission have found that Israel has committed genocide in the Gaza Strip.