Palestinians in Gaza bury remains of 100 people recovered from rubble

Palestinians in northern Gaza are holding funeral ceremonies for about 100 people, including 60 children, whose remains were recovered from the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood.

The remains were carried on Sunday by family members from Zeitoun to al-Ma’madani cemetery in central Gaza City for burial, according to Al Jazeera’s correspondent at the scene, Ghazi al-Aloul.

Civil defence crews and family members had spent weeks digging through the ruins of homes hit during Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza, which began in October 2023.

Many of the victims were part of the extended Malaka family, which alone lost 55 members.

Al-Aloul said families had waited a long time to be able to bury their loved ones in “known, proper cemeteries”. He said that the chance to bury the remains of family members was “not available to every family”, noting that Israeli forces had destroyed and dug up cemeteries elsewhere in Gaza during the war.

Al-Aloul said the remains, though wrapped in shrouds resembling intact bodies, were often only fragments.

“These are bone remains and remnants of belongings that may have been found on the bodies, especially the children’s,” he said, adding that no complete bodies had been recovered from the site because “the Israeli occupation has prolonged this process, and continues to prolong it and prevent it from being completed quickly”.

Raed al-Dahshan, head of Gaza’s civil defence service, told Al Jazeera his teams had formulated plans to carry out recovery operations for thousands more missing bodies, but said the work was being held back by a shortage of heavy machinery.