In the south of the Gaza Strip, graves are being dug. Elsewhere, bodies are placed in ice cream sellers’ trucks or a mass grave is prepared. Everywhere in the Palestinian microterritory shelled by the Israeli army, bodies are piling up.
In retaliation for the bloody attack by Hamas commandos launched on Israeli soil on October 7, the army relentlessly shelled the Gaza Strip, placed under complete siege since October 9.
This war, triggered by the unprecedented attack by Hamas, which continues to fire rockets into Israeli territory, has left more than 1,400 dead in Israel and at least 2,750 in the Gaza Strip, where 2.4 million people live. over 362 km2.
In the center of the Gaza Strip, in the parking lot of the Deir el-Balah hospital, a white truck which until recently transported ice cream was recycled to cope with the influx of bodies.
PHOTO STRINGER, REUTERS
On one of the doors of the refrigerated vehicle, a photograph of a little girl enjoying an ice cream cone. On another, a selection of ice creams which we promise will be “crunchy”. Inside, bodies swaddled in improvised shrouds, pressed against each other.
“At dawn (Sunday), two shells fell on the house. Sixteen people were in the house, including eight children who were sleeping peacefully,” says Talaat Abou Lashine, a member of the family.
In Gaza City, deserted due to violent bombings and Israel’s call for residents to evacuate the north of the territory, remains have not been requested.
“Given the large number of (bodies of) martyrs inside the morgues of al-Shifa hospital which have not been recovered by their relatives, the deterioration of the remains and the continuous arrival of martyrs by the dozens […]a mass grave was prepared to bury around 100 martyrs,” announced the head of the Hamas government media office, Salama Marouf.
Many children
“Every story that comes out of Gaza is one of survival, despair and loss,” regretted Sunday the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), Philippe Lazzarini, making report of a beginning shortage of body bags in the Palestinian territory.
“Sometimes we don’t have time to write the names” of the remains because there are so many of them, laments Ihsan Al-Natour, who works in a cemetery in Rafah (south).
“There are many children among the martyrs,” he adds. “We put three or four per grave.”
Muslim tradition requires burial as quickly as possible.
The Ministry of Religious Affairs in Gaza said it was “necessary” to bury the deceased quickly and that due to the number of dead and the scarcity of graves, it was advisable to collect several bodies.
In Rafah, in the south where residents of the north of the territory took refuge fearing a ground offensive by the Israeli army, residents dug holes in the sand in advance, next to each other, placed bricks and slabs around and inside, to receive remains.
In a hole, three children’s remains were piled up, as they could not be put elsewhere.
Hamas estimated Monday that 1,000 bodies were trapped under the rubble, warning of “a humanitarian catastrophe” and the spread of disease.