Gaza's Grave Crisis: Exorbitant Costs and Primitive Graves Devoured by Dogs

The humanitarian tragedy in the Gaza Strip is escalating to affect the dead after the living, as the families of martyrs face extreme difficulties in securing dignified graves for their loved ones. Local sources reported that the cost of a single grave in Gaza City's cemeteries has soared to record levels, ranging between 1200 and 1400 shekels, equivalent to about 500 US dollars, an amount beyond the means of the vast majority of besieged citizens.

Sheikh Hamdi, one of those responsible for burials in Sheikh Radwan cemetery, confirmed that the spaces allocated for burial have been completely exhausted, and there is no room left, not even for an additional half meter. He explained that the intense pressure on Sheikh Radwan and Baptist cemeteries has forced families to reopen old graves to bury more than one body in a single tomb, in an attempt to cope with the increasing number of daily victims.

Given the impossibility of accessing public cemeteries or affording their costs, hundreds of grieving families have been forced to convert their home courtyards and private gardens into makeshift burial sites for their children and grandchildren. This step came as a last resort to preserve the dignity of the martyrs and bury them close to their homes, away from the dangers of roads and continuous shelling that prevents access to official cemeteries.

grave construction suffers from a complete lack of basic building materials such as cement and stones due to the tight siege imposed by the occupation. Residents are forced to collect rubble from homes destroyed by aircraft and use mud and primitive methods to build tombs, making these graves fragile and insufficiently protected from external and environmental factors.

Painful testimonies from citizens revealed that some primitive graves, no more than half a meter deep, were exhumed by stray dogs. The shallow burial using corrugated iron sheets (zinc) allowed animals to access and remove bodies, a scene that embodies the cruelty of a war that did not spare the sanctity of the dead in the afflicted Strip.

In addition to the natural crisis, field sources documented the deliberate bulldozing of entire cemeteries by Israeli occupation mechanisms, as happened in 'Al-Batsh' cemetery east of Gaza. This systematic destruction led to the loss of grave markers and the mixing of remains, depriving families of their right to visit the shrines of their children or identify their burial places after the withdrawal of forces.

This suffering comes at a time when the occupation controls about 59% of the Gaza Strip's area, with the ongoing war of annihilation that has left more than 72,000 martyrs and 172,000 injured. Palestinians in Gaza remain hunted by the killing machine while alive, and deprived of stability in their graves after death, amidst comprehensive destruction of infrastructure and services throughout the Strip.

Families can no longer find even half a meter inside cemeteries to bury their loved ones, and graves are being opened multiple times to bury more than one martyr in a single tomb.