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Gaza holds mass funeral for extended family recovered from wartime rubble

▶ Watch Video: Latest news on Middle East after Trump says Gaza peace plan is moving along

In Gaza City, row after row of human remains — 112 people in all, and hauntingly from the same extended family — were laid in the morning sun, each draped in a Palestinian flag.

This large family group, including dozens of women and children from the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan in Gaza City, died nearly three years ago. 

An Israeli military strike hit the clan’s residential compound in the second month of the war, on Nov. 23, 2023, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense, which operates under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

Israel’s military has not responded to a request for comment about the strike, but said throughout the conflict that it targeted militants, accusing Hamas of operating in areas that put civilians at risk. 

Recovery teams were only able to access the site in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City in mid-July, exhuming and collecting decomposed remains over the last two weeks of the month. 

People attend a mass funeral In the Gaza Strip
A mass funeral is held for over 100 members of the Abu Sharia and Al-Hasayna families, whose remains were recently recovered from the rubble of their homes after an attack earlier in the war, on Aug. 4, 2026, in Gaza City.

Omar Ashtawy / Getty Images

Gaza authorities described this as the strip’s biggest mass funeral since Oct. 7, 2023, after Hamas-led militants stormed southern Israel, igniting fierce Israeli retribution that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians in the nearly three years since, according to figures from Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.

One mourner showered flower petals over the covered bodies of the Hassayna and Abu Sharia clan as women and children watched from atop partly demolished buildings around the earthen square. A banner with the faces of dozens of children served as the backdrop of a speech from the spokesperson of Gaza’s Civil Defense. 

“O nation, why are children getting killed in Gaza? Why are women getting killed in Gaza?” asked Mahmoud Basal at the service. “Why are massacres committed against innocents in Gaza?”

The words “Stop the genocide in Gaza,” in both Arabic and English, had been scrawled on the podium he spoke from. 

Israeli officials have vehemently disputed accusations that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, saying it was Hamas that attempted genocide with its Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state.  

Near death after North Texas animal cruelty case, Boone and other dogs are now thriving

By CNN
Click here for updates on this story    TEXAS (KTVT) -- An almost unbelievable update on a story we first told you about in May, when authorities in Hunt County seized a number of starving dogs from a rural property and charged the owner with animal cruelty.Some of those dogs were believed to be near death when they were taken to an SPCA facility in Dallas. There were doubts and questions about whether they could be nursed back to health.One dog was so malnourished that he had to be carried by Hunt County Sheriff's deputies out of what investigators described as hellish conditions when the dog and six others were seized from farmland back in May. "This is definitely one of the worst cases that we've seen in quite a few years," said Rebecca Woodward, the SPCA Sr. Director of Shelter and Medical Operations.The one they called Boone was said to be hours from dying when he and the others were rushed to the SPCA of Texas Dallas shelter, where a team of 150 staff and volunteers worked around the clock for weeks to save him. "He could barely walk," said Woodward. "Our team knew it was critical to come in and save him very quickly. And it was an hour-by-hour situation. He had to have really close monitoring from all teams to pull through, but we never stopped believing that he would make it."Today, Boone is thriving."As long as we were taking those little steps of improving his nutrition and improving his health day by day, we could see the spark come back in his eyes," Woodward said.Boone, Clyde and Cash are still at the SPCA shelter in Dallas with others currently in foster homes.But all of them, ages 3 to 8, we are glad to report, are thriving. "It took everyone at the SPCA to play a hand in this. And so we've been rooting for him from day one," said Woodward. "And we just can't wait to see him get a forever home."Boone and the other dogs seized in the raid are currently available for fostering and adoption. Whoever they end up with will have a family pet with a survival story unlike almost any other In fact, the staff at the SPCA of Texas, Dallas, believes these dogs that have been through so much seem to show a greater appreciation of everything they get."They all just seem to be enjoying their life right now," Woodward said. "And I would like to believe it's because they got that second chance, but they could just be being dogs. I mean, they're getting to play. They got to do enrichment. Our goal is for them to do this in a home, but to see them blossom in shelter, we're doing something right."Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
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