2023-10-12 17:20:45
October 12, 2023
Baghdad/Al-Masala Al-Hadath: Israeli air strikes make the road to the main cemeteries in Gaza a dangerous journey, so bereaved families bury their dead in random graves that they dig in empty land amid an ongoing siege that pushes the small strip towards a humanitarian catastrophe.
Gaza has been under Israeli bombing since Saturday, when hundreds of Hamas fighters infiltrated the border fence into Israel in an attack that killed more than 1,200 and took dozens of hostages.
Israeli retaliation with thousands of air and artillery strikes led to the death of more than 1,350 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, the injury of more than 6,000 others, and the push of more than 218,000 people to flee their homes to take refuge in UN schools.
With Israel cutting off all external supplies of food, water, medicine, fuel and electricity, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has reached a new level of severity, adding to the misery suffered by the Strip’s 2.3 million residents.
The main martyrs’ cemetery in Khan Yunis was almost full long before the latest bouts of fighting. Like many other cemeteries in Gaza, a sign reading “No burial here” was placed on its fence.
Adel Hamada, a volunteer who helps with burial operations in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, said, “It is not possible to wait for burial in a specific place, so graves are dug randomly in several places around homes, and landowners donated land for a cemetery.”
Those who dig graves and bury are still placing bodies there despite the ban, but that has become impossible now, after the bombing made walking on the roads leading to the Martyrs’ Cemetery impossible.
Due to its location near the Gaza Strip border, it is also dangerously close to the front lines of any expected Israeli ground attack.
With hospital morgues filled with bodies constantly arriving from bombing sites, families have to find other places to bury their dead.
* Continuous burial
Samour’s family was killed on Wednesday evening when a strike hit their home in Khan Yunis. Relatives and friends rushed to the morgue to transport the eight bodies already recovered by rescue workers, while ten other bodies are believed to still be under the rubble of the house.
The bodies were transported in a truck covered in floral blankets from the hospital to an empty street lot, then lined up in their white shrouds, one of which was dripping with blood, while hundreds of men prayed nearby.
A grave digger shoveled the soil into a long trench, marking the graves with concrete blocks. A man placed his head on one of his palms while he patted the shrouded body lying in front of him with his other hand before placing it in the grave, while a woman stood shedding tears.
Abdul Aziz Al-Fahm said, “These are our relatives and relatives.” This is a civilian family. The Israeli forces launched a blatant attack on it. “This is a real massacre.”
Explosions echoed across Gaza throughout the night. Fireballs from the air strikes glowed red in the darkness over cities and refugee camps without electricity to light the streets.
Aerial images taken by drones showed large holes in the densely packed concrete buildings, with wooden planks amid the rubble and twisted metal bars from the remains of bombed homes as residents sifted through them.
In Khan Yunis, a group of people stood over the rubble of a house destroyed in an air strike. Crimson mattresses and pillows were scattered, while dust-covered blankets stood out amid the rubble of concrete blocks.
The body of a woman was recovered in a white sheet and carried on a stretcher among a crowd of men and boys. An elderly woman was walking weakly in black clothes in one of the alleys, then she suddenly fell, crying in sadness.
At another bombed site, six men were running down the street carrying a stretcher with a man’s body covered in dust. A woman looked to see the carried body and began screaming.
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