GAZA CITY — The remains were wrapped in Palestinian flags and displayed on Saturday evening so relatives could say goodbye. On Sunday, hundreds of Palestinians attended the funeral of 75 people, among them women and children, whose remains were recovered from the rubble of homes destroyed in Gaza City during the early months of the war, Anadolu Agency reported. The procession began outside the Daraj Sports Club and ended at Sheikh Radwan Cemetery.
Abdullah al-Majdalawi, director of public relations and media for Gaza’s Civil Defense, told Anadolu that teams pulled the remains from several destroyed homes in the Daraj neighborhood over recent weeks. The buildings were bombed with residents inside, he said. The dead belonged to about 20 Palestinian families, among them people who had been displaced into those homes. In August, TEH reported on the Gaza mass funeral for 112 clan members recovered from the rubble in Sabra.
The recovery is running short of machinery. Majdalawi said body recovery still faces severe difficulties because of a lack of equipment and heavy machinery.
Sunday’s burial belongs to the second phase of the Civil Defense project to retrieve bodies from under the rubble, which began on July 19. At the launch, spokesman Mahmoud Basal said teams would search 147 destroyed homes across Gaza City and the northern and central parts of the Strip, where an estimated 1,072 bodies were believed trapped. The first phase, launched in November 2025, recovered 333 bodies and remains of the 559 people believed buried under 54 destroyed homes and buildings, Anadolu reported. Limited resources kept crews from about 226 others.
The larger number is Basal’s. He told Anadolu on October 7 that more than 8,000 missing Palestinians are still believed to be under the rubble and that, at current resource levels, recovery could take about eight years.
In September, Anadolu reported a funeral for 100 people, 60 of them children, recovered from the rubble of Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighborhood.
The machinery question runs into the ceasefire. Anadolu wrote that under the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire, in effect since October 10, 2025, Israel was expected to allow heavy equipment into the Strip, and that Palestinian authorities and factions have accused it of not meeting that commitment or others.
TEH found no count of the 75 from outside Gaza’s authorities. Basal’s eight years assumes resources stay as they are.
