Gaza teams recover 55 Malka family members from 2023 strike site

Key points

• The remains of 55 Palestinians, all from the Malka family, were recovered from a residential building in the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City.
• The building was struck by Israeli forces on November 19, 2023, when the family was sheltering inside after being displaced from their own homes.
• Gaza civil defence teams spent 72 hours searching for the bodies, which were found beneath the rubble of the destroyed home.
• A joint funeral procession for the recovered victims is expected to take place next weekend.
• The recovery effort is hampered by a chronic shortage of heavy machinery needed to clear broken concrete.
• Gaza’s Ministry of Health, along with UN agencies, estimates that between 10,000 and 14,000 people remain missing under rubble across Gaza.

Background

This recovery operation occurs amid ongoing violence in Gaza despite a ceasefire that took hold in October 2025. Recent archive reports indicate continued Israeli strikes, including attacks on medical warehouses and aid convoys, which have worsened the humanitarian crisis. The cumulative death toll has risen significantly since the war began in October 2023, with thousands of people still missing under rubble.

How outlets are covering it

Al Jazeera and Middle East Eye report on the recovery of 55 Malka family members, while Palestine Chronicle reports on the recovery of over 100 bodies in Zaytoun, including around 70 children. Al Jazeera and Palestine Chronicle both cite Gaza’s Ministry of Health for casualty figures, but Palestine Chronicle reports a slightly higher overall death toll (73,651) compared to Al Jazeera (73,470). All sources emphasize the ongoing difficulty of recovering bodies due to a lack of heavy machinery and the scale of destruction in Gaza.

Why it matters

The recovery of the Malka family members highlights the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where thousands of people remain buried under rubble. The slow and largely manual recovery process underscores the severe impact of the war on Gaza’s infrastructure and the challenges faced by civil defence teams. The continued violence and high casualty figures, even after a ceasefire, indicate that the conflict’s aftermath remains unresolved and that the humanitarian situation is dire.

What to watch

A joint funeral for the 55 recovered Malka family members is expected next weekend. Civil defence teams will continue efforts to recover more bodies from beneath the rubble, with calls for international humanitarian organisations to provide more equipment. The ongoing violence and high casualty figures suggest that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza will persist, with thousands of people still missing and injured.