Funeral for 100 Palestinian martyrs, including 70 children, retrieved from the rubble

Gaza, Sept 6 (KUNA) -- A large Palestinian crowd in the Gaza Strip today Sunday escorted the remains of 100 martyrs, retrieved from beneath the rubble of homes destroyed by Israeli occupation aircraft in the Al-Zaytun neighborhood in southeastern Gaza City during the initial stages of the aggression against the Strip, including 70 children. The funeral procession began with a solemn cortege, widely attended by residents of Al-Zaytun, families of the martyrs, and crowds of Palestinians who performed the funeral prayer before the bodies were carried to the Al-Mammani cemetery for burial. Mahmoud Basal, spokesperson for the Palestinian Civil Defense, said in a speech at the ceremony that more than 100 martyrs, including 70 children, had been recovered after lying under the rubble for years, until Civil Defense teams were finally able to reach and extract them, allowing their families to say goodbye and lay them to rest. Basal added that Civil Defense teams continued search and recovery operations in various parts of the Gaza Strip to locate the remains of missing persons trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings, despite the difficulty of field operations and the shortage of necessary equipment and machinery to clear debris and reach victims. He noted that Civil Defense teams had paid a heavy price while carrying out their humanitarian duties since the start of the aggression, with more than 150 of its personnel killed and over 50 others arrested by Israeli occupation forces, who remain in captivity. Statistics indicate that approximately 8,000 missing persons are still under the rubble and require heavy machinery for their extraction, as campaigns continue to register more missing individuals whose fate remains unknown. (End) wab/abg