Gaza Families Prepare to Bury 105 Victims Recovered From 2023 Israeli Strike on Al Taj 3 Building

Palestinian authorities in Gaza have announced that the remains of 105 people killed in a large-scale Israeli attack on Gaza City in October 2023 will finally be laid to rest, more than two years after the strike that destroyed the Al Taj 3 building and surrounding residential structures.

The burial is scheduled to take place on Thursday, with a funeral procession involving the victims' family members. Coffins holding the recovered remains will be carried through the streets before interment at the Sheikh Radwan cemetery, located northwest of Gaza City, according to the General Directorate of Civil Defence.

The victims died on the afternoon of October 25, 2023, when a series of Israeli air strikes — involving at least 20 bombs — levelled the seven-storey Al Taj 3 building and demolished several other residential buildings in the Yarmouk Square neighbourhood. The attack occurred less than three weeks into the war that began on October 7, 2023, a period marked by intense and widespread bombardment across the Gaza Strip.

Gaza's civil defence service confirmed that the recovery operation was conducted in coordination with an Egyptian committee, underscoring the role of regional mediators in facilitating humanitarian work in the enclave. The operation represents the fifth-largest recovery of its kind since the conflict began in October 2023, measured by the number of bodies retrieved, according to Al Jazeera correspondent Ibrahim Khalili, reporting from Gaza City.

Abdul al-Majdalawi, operations director for the civil defence, explained that rescue teams had been unable to reach the bodies at the time of the strike. "Bulldozers, excavators and other heavy machinery used by civil defence teams in Gaza were directly and deliberately targeted," he said, describing the conditions that prevented earlier recovery efforts.

The scale of the destruction and the intensity of the ongoing military operations in the immediate aftermath of the strike made it impossible for emergency workers to access the rubble of the collapsed structures. For families, the delay of more than two years has meant living without the ability to properly mourn or bury their loved ones, a prolonged limbo that many Palestinians in Gaza have faced during the conflict.

Among those waiting for closure was Osama Sharaf, who lost 37 members of his extended family in the attack. Speaking to Al Jazeera, he recounted the partial recovery of remains earlier in the war and the additional 16 bodies found on Wednesday. "We recovered some of them at the beginning of the war, and today 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.

The Al Taj 3 strike is one of numerous incidents during the war in which large numbers of civilians were killed in single attacks. The use of multiple munitions — at least 20 bombs in this case — against a densely populated residential area illustrates the devastating impact of air strikes on urban neighbourhoods, where residential buildings often house multiple families across several floors.

The Yarmouk Square neighbourhood, like much of Gaza City, has suffered extensive destruction since October 2023. Many residents have been displaced multiple times, and the infrastructure needed for rescue and recovery operations — including heavy machinery such as bulldozers and excavators — has been severely depleted, with civil defence teams reporting that their equipment was targeted during the hostilities.

The involvement of an Egyptian committee in the recovery operation highlights the broader regional efforts to address the humanitarian dimensions of the conflict. Egypt has served as a key mediator in negotiations related to the war and has facilitated the passage of aid and, in some cases, the movement of people and remains through the Rafah crossing area.

The funeral procession and burial represent a rare moment of collective mourning in a territory where the scale of death has overwhelmed the capacity of families and communities to observe traditional burial rites. Islamic tradition calls for the swift burial of the dead, and the inability to do so for over two years has compounded the grief of surviving relatives.

The recovery of these 105 remains also raises questions about the many other victims still believed to be trapped under rubble across Gaza. Civil defence officials have repeatedly said that limited equipment and security constraints have prevented a full accounting of the dead, with estimates of unrecovered bodies varying widely.

For the families set to gather on Thursday, the burial will bring a measure of closure after years of uncertainty. Yet the ceremony will also serve as a reminder of the broader toll of the war, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and left much of Gaza's civilian infrastructure in ruins.

International humanitarian law prohibits attacks that target civilians or civilian objects, and requires parties to take constant care to spare the civilian population. The destruction of residential buildings such as Al Taj 3 has been cited by critics of the Israeli military campaign as evidence of disproportionate force, allegations that Israel has generally rejected by citing military objectives and the presence of fighters in civilian areas.

As the coffins are prepared for Thursday's procession, the focus remains on the families whose loved ones will finally be laid to rest — and on those still waiting for the remains of relatives yet to be found beneath the debris of Gaza's devastated neighbourhoods.