- Hundreds of Palestinians attended a mass funeral for 75 individuals whose remains were recovered from rubble in Gaza City’s Al-Daraj neighborhood
- Recovery teams in Gaza are hampered by a lack of heavy machinery and forensic equipment due to ongoing Israeli restrictions and bombardments since October 2023
Updated 18 October 2026 17:39
LONDON: Hundreds of Palestinians attended a mass funeral on Sunday for 75 people whose remains were recovered from beneath buildings’ rubble destroyed by Israeli bombings in Gaza City’s Al-Daraj neighborhood.
An estimated 8,000 bodies are still believed to be buried beneath the rubble across the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestine News Agency. Recovery teams lack the heavy machinery and forensic equipment needed to retrieve and identify them amid the ongoing Israeli restriction of supplies and bombardment of the Palestinian coastal enclave since October 2023.
The Palestinian Ministry of Justice’s national team for following up on missing persons reported in October that more than 10,000 people have been missing in Gaza since late 2023. Nonetheless, the figure is an estimate and does not represent a consolidated count, the report added.
The death toll in the Gaza Strip reached over 74,400, with at least 175,449 people injured since October 2023. According to the UN, Israel’s actions have restricted Gaza’s 2 million population to about 30 percent of the territory.
The Israeli government is facing charges of war crimes and genocide at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice following their actions.