Gaza families bury remains recovered from Zeitoun rubble
About 100 people, including 60 children, were buried after weeks of excavation in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, while civil defence warned thousands more remain beneath destroyed buildings.
Families in Gaza held funeral ceremonies on Sunday for the remains of about 100 people recovered from destroyed buildings in Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood. The figure, including about 60 children, was reported by Al Jazeera from the scene and has not been independently verified.
Family members carried the remains from Zeitoun to al-Ma’madani cemetery in central Gaza City. Civil defence crews and relatives had spent weeks excavating the ruins, with many of those recovered reportedly belonging to the extended Malaka family, which was said to have lost 55 members.
The material recovered often consisted of bone fragments and belongings rather than complete bodies. Identification has relied on relatives’ accounts of who was present in the buildings, supported by field documentation and engineering teams.
Raed al-Dahshan, head of Gaza’s civil defence service, said about 8,000 bodies were still believed to be beneath rubble. He said recovery could take about 90 days with adequate equipment, but would continue for years if machinery could not enter Gaza.
Civil defence officials cited shortages of heavy excavators, protective equipment and search equipment as major constraints. The agency has submitted a list of required equipment to international institutions and said it would accept machinery remaining under international control.
Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN human rights office in the occupied Palestinian territories, said the recoveries underscored the scale of the conflict and stressed the need to preserve evidence. Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 73,651 Palestinians have been killed and 174,592 wounded since October 2023; those figures have not been independently verified.
