In Gaza City, amidst the debris and ruins left behind by an Israeli airstrike at the onset of a conflict, over 100 orange stretchers adorned with Palestinian flags were solemnly laid out on Tuesday morning. Among these stretchers were smaller flags signifying the young victims of the tragedy. The remains, now reduced to bones, teeth, and shreds of clothing, belonged to 112 individuals from the Abu Sharia and Hasayna families, part of the same clan, who lost their lives in the Israeli attack on November 23, 2023.
The funeral ceremony, held after nearly three years of painstaking efforts to retrieve the remains, saw hundreds of people, including surviving family members, gather to pay their respects as the deceased were finally laid to rest at the nearby Baptist cemetery. The families had been tirelessly working alongside Gaza’s Civil Defence to locate their loved ones, with the process hindered by the scarcity of heavy machinery in the war-torn region.
Mahmoud Hasayneh, present to bid farewell to his brothers, expressed the reopening of old wounds for the grieving family. He lamented, “Now we will start a new broken heart with this mission, and all our family is crying.”
Youssef Abu Sharia, who lost multiple family members in the airstrike, recounted the emotional wait for closure as excavators slowly combed through the rubble to find any possible remains. The challenges in the retrieval process were exacerbated by the damage to heavy machinery in Gaza due to previous Israeli strikes and restrictions on importing essential equipment.
At the funeral, Abu Sharia shared a mix of relief and sorrow at finally being able to give their loved ones a proper burial after years of uncertainty and waiting. Tayseer Abu Sharia, another relative in attendance, highlighted the arduous journey of resorting to manual labor, digging through debris with bare hands due to the lack of adequate tools and resources.
The ongoing tragedy in Gaza extends beyond this particular incident, with thousands still unaccounted for under the rubble, as confirmed by Zaher al-Waheidi from the health ministry. Mahmoud Basal, the Civil Defence spokesperson, emphasized the urgent need for international intervention to facilitate the entry of heavy machinery into Gaza to aid in the recovery efforts.
As the families finally laid their relatives to rest, a sense of closure mingled with the realization of the vast number of missing individuals in the region. Youssef Abu Sharia poignantly questioned, “We cannot find any trace of them, we don’t see their bodies, we don’t see bones. Where did they go?”
The long-awaited burial, marked by prayers and a procession to the cemetery, symbolized a bittersweet moment of closure for the Abu Sharia and Hasayneh families, who have endured years of uncertainty and anguish over the fate of their loved ones.