GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — One family buried a slain son over his grandfather. Another bundled up the tiny bodies of three young cousins and lowered them into the grave of a long-dead aunt. A man was laid to rest with his brother.
More than two weeks into the Israeli offensive that has killed more than 940 Palestinians, Gazans are struggling to find places to bury their dead. Cemeteries throughout Gaza City that were closed for new burials have now reopened.
“Gaza is all a graveyard,” gravedigger Salman Omar said Tuesday as he shoveled earth in Gaza City’s crammed Sheik Radwan cemetery.
Just 6 miles wide and 25 miles long, Gaza has always suffered from a shortage of burial space. But Gazans say Israel’s shelling and ground offensive have made it impossible for residents to reach Martyrs Cemetery — the only graveyard in the area with space to dig fresh graves.
Palestinian medical officials say roughly half the dead are civilians.
Among them are the Samouni cousins, 5-month-old Mohammed, 1-year-old Mutasim and 2-year-old Ahmed, whose family hurriedly dug up the grave of an aunt to lay them to rest last week.
“We buried them quickly,” said Iyad Samouni, 26, speaking from al-Awda hospital in Gaza City, where he was being treated for shrapnel wounds. “We were afraid we’d be shelled.” He said the family fled the graveyard after they came under fire from a warplane.
Relatives of the newly buried make do with a small tile or a name etched in concrete. For others, there was no name at all, just the tombstone of the relative buried there first.
“I’ve buried a policeman in his mother’s grave,” said Omar, the gravedigger. “I buried three brothers in one hole. I buried children with their mothers. You don’t ask questions: it’s just important to find a place and bury them.”
The Associated Press
