‘I wanted to hug whatever remained’: Gaza families’ 3-year wait for funeral

Thousands gather for mass funeral of 112 members of Abu Shreia and al-Hassaina families whose remains were recovered years after Israeli attack. Gaza holds mass funeral for 112 victims recovered after three years Gaza City, the Gaza Strip – Lara Abu Shreia could not sleep on Monday night. Every time she closed her eyes, she says, the faces of her loved ones appeared before her. So the 39-year-old turned to her phone, scrolling through photos as she prepared herself for a long-awaited farewell to her family. In the largest mass funeral held in Gaza since Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians began in 2023, thousands gathered in Gaza City’s Sabra neighbourhood on Tuesday to bid farewell to 112 members of the Abu Shreia and al-Hassaina families whose remains were recently unearthed from beneath the rubble nearly three years after an Israeli air attack.

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Scoop News DeskGaza · Published Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at 8:32 PM UTCUpdated Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at 8:58 PM UTC

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According to Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defence, more than 8,000 bodies are estimated to remain beneath the rubble of destroyed buildings. At the time, Lara, her husband and their five children had been displaced to southern Gaza after a forced evacuation threat issued by Israel at the start of the war, which has killed more than 73,370 Palestinians. I felt that something could happen to them,” recounts Lara.