Mass Burial of 112 Members of Gaza’s Abu Shariya Family Draws Thousands of Mourners

GAZA — Thousands of Palestinians gathered in Gaza City on Tuesday for the mass funeral of 112 members of the Abu Shariya al-Husseina family, whose bodies were recovered from the rubble of homes destroyed in ongoing Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip. The dead included children, women, men and the elderly. Bodies wrapped in Palestinian flags were laid out among the ruins in the al-Sabra neighborhood before the funeral procession moved to Sheikh Shaban cemetery in central Gaza.
Family spokesman Yousef Abu Shariya said the family has lost 308 members since the war began. Elder Ali Abu Shariya said Tuesday’s 112 dead included 44 children, 37 women, 23 elderly people and 7 people with disabilities. He said the first major strike on the family came on October 20, 2023, when a five-storey family home was bombed, killing 14 people, while the deadliest attack came on November 22, 2023, when a residential block in al-Sabra sheltering roughly 300 family members was heavily bombed.
Dr. Jado Abu Shariya described the funeral as “the largest in contemporary Palestinian history.” The family has so far buried 267 of its members, while 41 remain unaccounted for, feared either still buried under rubble or their remains scattered by the intensity of the bombing.
Medical sources say 2,276 Palestinian families have been wiped out entirely during the war, with 8,858 members killed and no survivors, while another 2,348 families have only one surviving member. Since October 7, 2023, more than 73,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, with tens of thousands more wounded or missing.