Washington - "Jerusalem" dot com - Saeed Erekat - The American website "Al-Monitor" publishes a report entitled "There is no rest in Gaza, even for the dead". It indicated at its outset that the repeated Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip during the past years led to the destruction of thousands of housing units and killings. Thousands of Gazans.

In light of this, the site says: “The densely populated Gaza Strip is in dire need of new areas to rebuild homes and cemeteries, but the authorities are struggling to accommodate both the living and the dead.

The report noted that the 365-square-kilometer (227-square-mile) Gaza Strip, home to more than two million people, is suffering under deteriorating economic conditions, poor infrastructure, and overcrowding, with no hope for an improvement in the political situation.

And in an interview with the citizen Ahmed Al-Yazji, who lives in the central Gaza Strip: “My father died in the war on Gaza in May 2021, and all members of our family were buried in the Sheikh Radwan cemetery in the center of Gaza City, but in 2021 that cemetery became full, so we could not My father is buried there. We were asked to find another place to bury him near the border, very far from where we live. How are we supposed to visit our father's grave? In the end, we were forced to bury him in the Fallujah cemetery in the northern Gaza Strip."

Al-Yazji added, “There are a lot of vacant government lands in the Gaza Strip, which the government must turn into cemeteries. Burying our dead is a sacred matter for us as Muslims, so the government needs to provide suitable cemeteries for their dead, and they must be close so that families can visit their dead.” Easily. But instead, the government gives the land in central Gaza to its employees."

Al-Jazeera previously published a report on the pressures faced by cemeteries in the besieged Gaza Strip, where even the dead cannot rest in peace. The report notes that last February, the Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs in Gaza closed 24 cemeteries that reached their capacity, noting that it faces a dilemma in finding lands for graves due to the population increase.

In turn, a citizen named Mazen al-Najjar said in an interview with the site: "We are facing a big problem in providing lands for new cemeteries inside the Gaza Strip, amid repeated wars, population growth, and urban sprawl." He added, "We have 64 cemeteries in Gaza, including family and public cemeteries, and we closed 24 of them after they reached their capacity. We have plans to build new cemeteries to compensate for those that have been closed, but to find the land and complete the project we need about four years and a huge budget. No The Ministry of Awqaf can do this on its own. Other bodies including the Ministry of Local Government and Municipalities and the Palestinian Land Authority are all responsible for finding land and providing budgets."

Al-Najjar said: “Repeated wars have increased the demand for new housing and re-housing of the homeless, and the construction of cemeteries is no longer a priority. However, the government is required to provide housing for the dead as well as the living. A development plan should be put in place to allocate land for cemeteries and provide security staff. Today, there are only 30 guards guarding 64 graves, which has led to many violations and abuses by grave robbers."