The death toll from Israel’s relentless assault on the Gaza Strip has exceeded 40,000, overwhelming cemeteries and leaving families with nowhere to bury their loved ones.
Gazans are grappling with a severe shortage of available burial plots, particularly in the central regions of the besieged enclave.
Saad Hassan Barakat, a cemetery worker in Gaza City, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that despite his extensive experience in cemetery work, he has never faced a crisis of this magnitude.
Barakat said that before the war, he would carry out a few burials each day. Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas conflict on Oct. 7 last year, he has sometimes buried 70, 80, 100 or even 300 bodies in a single day.
He described how bodies are now being buried in layers at the cemetery.
“The difficulty is that there’s no space left to dig graves, so I’ve stacked graves on top of each other,” he said. “This place isn’t just one or two but three layers of graves.”
Barakat, who previously oversaw nine cemeteries in the area, said he can now only access two cemeteries due to ongoing bombings.
“The bombardment continues day and night,” he said.
He added that bodies are being buried in mass graves without charge, but those requesting individual graves must pay around 300 shekels ($80).
Mohammed Abdullah, a Palestinian displaced from the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, said the Israeli military’s relentless attacks have made it increasingly difficult to bury the dead.
“The number of martyrs is terrifying and horrifyingly increasing,” Abdullah said. “In the smallest massacre, we lose 10 or 20 people. In the central region of Gaza, there are only three cemeteries, and they are all full to capacity.”
Abdullah recounted a recent attempt to bury eight bodies, during which previously buried corpses were uncovered.
He noted that cemeteries are filled not only with the dead but also with the living, as displaced people seek refuge in any available space.
“There is no space to open new graves because many displaced people have taken refuge in the cemeteries,” he said, highlighting the desperation of the situation. “The living dead take priority.”
He described the number of bodies arriving for burial as “horrific,” with attacks continuing unabated.
“There is no empty space in the cemetery, and displaced people are also in the vacant areas,” he added.
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip following an attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7, despite a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
The conflict has resulted in over 40,170 Palestinian deaths, mostly women and children, and more than 92,740 injuries, according to local health authorities.
An ongoing blockade of Gaza has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.
Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which has ordered a halt to military operations in the southern city of Rafah, where over 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge before the area was invaded on May 6.
