The journey of death in the Gaza Strip is turning into an endless humanitarian epic, where the pain is not limited to losing loved ones but extends to the struggle to find a proper grave to bury them.
In the Sheikh Radwan Cemetery and Al-Mamdani Cemetery—the only two in the Strip—the spaces can no longer accommodate the growing numbers of martyrs due to the ongoing Israeli aggression.
Cemetery workers are facing an unprecedented crisis, as they are forced to bury more than one martyr in a single grave. One of them told Al Jazeera in an interview that a grave originally meant for one martyr now holds between 10 to 22 martyrs, noting that he made a tombstone with the names of 22 martyrs and another with the names of 19 martyrs.
In a related context, families’ suffering is doubling with the rising costs of burial, as the price of a single grave now ranges between 1,200-1,400 shekels (around 400 to 465 dollars), and hundreds of grieving families are forced to convert their home yards and private gardens into emergency cemeteries for the martyred children and grandchildren.
On the other hand, the report shows that the Israeli occupation continues to bulldoze dozens of cemeteries during military operations. In a scene reflecting the scale of this disaster, journalist Yusra Al-Aklouk lost track of her brother’s grave, who was buried in 2014, after it was replaced by a small marker bearing the name of another martyr and a new burial date.
