Gaza Prepares to Lay to Rest 105 Victims of Devastating October 2023 Israeli Airstrikes

People react as Palestinians search for casualties at the site of an Israeli strike on a residential building in Gaza City, on October 25, 2023 [Yasser Qudih/Reuters]. Palestinians are making final arrangements to bury the remains of 105 individuals who lost their lives in a massive Israeli attack on Gaza City in October 2023.

The victims perished during a wave of Israeli air strikes utilizing at least 20 bombs, which completely flattened the seven-storey Al Taj 3 building and obliterated several neighboring residential structures in the Yarmouk Square neighbourhood on the afternoon of October 25, 2023. According to the General Directorate of Civil Defence, coffins holding the remains will be transported in a funeral procession by grieving family members on Thursday.

The remains are scheduled for burial at the Sheikh Radwan cemetery, located northwest of Gaza City. Gaza’s civil defence stated that this recovery mission was executed in collaboration with an Egyptian committee.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera correspondent Ibrahim Khalili noted that this recovery operation ranks as the fifth largest of its kind since the conflict began in October 2023, measured by the volume of bodies retrieved. Abdul al-Majdalawi, the civil defence operations director, explained that accessing the bodies immediately following the strike was "impossible."

"Bulldozers, excavators and other heavy machinery used by civil defence teams in Gaza were directly and deliberately targeted," al-Majdalawi stated.

Meanwhile, Osama Sharaf shared the immense toll the attack took on his family, noting that 37 of his relatives were killed. "We recovered some of them at the beginning of the war, and today [Wednesday] 16 more were recovered, including my father, my mother, and all of my siblings. My sister’s son was also there with them," he said.