The Gaza Civil Defense found about 100 martyrs, including 60 children, from the rubble of destroyed houses in al-Zaytoun district, nearly three years after their martyrdom.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, Ghazi al-Alul, said 55 of the martyrs were from the Malka family, in addition to the al-Balawi and Salma families.
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Al Jazeera’s correspondent noted that civil defense crews were able to retrieve the bodies after long hours of work and in the absence of the necessary heavy equipment.
On Saturday evening, people said goodbye to the bodies of their children after specialist crews were able to exhume their bodies after years in the rubble of Israel’s aggression on the Gaza Strip.
The Gaza Civil Defense continues to ask the authorities concerned to bring in heavy equipment to facilitate the search and recover the bodies, but the occupation refuses to bring it in, according to agency officials.
According to local estimates, there are about 8,000 bodies and remains of martyrs under the rubble of destroyed buildings in different regions of the Gaza Strip.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent indicated that the second phase of the operation to retrieve the bodies of the martyrs from the ruins began yesterday in the Central Governorate and includes the city of Deir al-Balak and the camps of Nuseirat and al-Maghazi.
Goodbye has been delayed for years
The farewell scenes bore the traces of years of waiting. Mothers, fathers, children and relatives stood by the bodies of loved ones, after so long they did not know their fate and the place where they lay, and grief was mixed with the bitterness of removing the remains from the ruins of houses destroyed by war.
Exhumation was not only about searching for missing people under the rubble, but also returning the remains of people who had been missing for years to their families, and their bodies and traces remained under the rubble until specialist crews could reach them and return them to their families for burial.
Throughout this period, many families were deprived of funerals and farewell ceremonies, and the fate of their loved ones remained unknown until the recovery process ended the difficult wait for these families.
As bodies emerged from the wreckage, the rubble seen at the moment of loss became the final farewell station, a scene in which the bitterness of loss mingled with the relief of finally reaching the long-absent bodies beneath the rubble.
Write farewell moments
Video clips and photos circulated documenting the discovery of bodies and preparations for burial, and showed families retrieving the remains of their loved ones after years in the rubble, in an atmosphere dominated by grief and prayer.
The scenes also showed part of a farewell ceremony, with family members gathering around the corpses and remains of their loved ones and preparing to bury them after years of waiting.
After years spent in the ruins of destroyed houses, the bodies of the dead were taken to their final resting place today. As families prepare to bury their loved ones, the moment of farewell seems years overdue, but will finally bring an end to the harrowing wait that war left behind.
The release of these scenes coincided with widespread interaction on social media, where activists and journalists recalled the years of waiting for the families of the martyrs and expressed the farewell and funeral scenes.
To say goodbye from the ruins
Activist Luai Khaled described the scene as “a continuation of the stench of death that never stops in the streets of Gaza,” noting that the remains of more than 100 martyrs, including about 70 children, were recovered from the rubble of houses destroyed during the war.
For his part, activist Mahmoud al-Sharif said the pictures circulated were “not fleeting” and described what appeared to be clothing and debris found among the rubble, noting that the scenes depicted the devastation caused by the bombing of residential areas in Gaza.
As for the activist Khaled Safi, he posted pictures of the farewell ceremony, noting that the people of Gaza are saying goodbye to the remains of their martyrs after specialized crews were able to remove them from the ruins of destroyed houses in Zaytoun district, explaining that some of them belong to Malika’s family.
In the same context, activist Moin al-Kahlot wrote: “From the ruins to the graves… 100 martyrs are mourned,” referring to the bodies that were removed from the ruins of the al-Zaytoun neighborhood in preparation for their burial.
The activist, known only as al-Hakim, described the scene as “a funeral and oppression that has been delayed for more than two years”, noting that the families of the martyrs had long waited for the opportunity to bury their loved ones and hold farewell ceremonies.
In his post, he drew attention to the suffering of families who wait years to bury their children, wondering the pain of a father and mother whose search for their son turns years later into a bone, remains or last trace that points to him, concluding: “Even funerals in Gaza are delayed… and even goodbyes take years.”
More than a thousand days of separation
Journalist Bashir Abu Shaar also posted pictures of the farewell ceremony and wrote “A farewell vision of bodies and faces stripped of their features”, noting recurring scenes of loss and farewells in Gaza, where children bid farewell to friends for the last time with tears and flowers.
For his part, journalist Aziz Khalil al-Bahtini called the scene “the final farewell” and noted that more than a thousand days of separation, waiting and searching for their loved ones had passed before their families finally reached the moment of burial and farewell.
This interaction reflects some of the suffering experienced by the families of the martyrs, whose loss was not limited to the loss of their loved ones, but continued to wait for years to learn their fate, and then to have their bodies removed and buried.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has continued its genocidal war against the people of the Gaza Strip despite reaching a cease-fire agreement with Hamas, killing 73,470 Palestinians and injuring 174,540 others, mostly children and women, according to the latest health ministry figures from September.
