Gaza Herald – In a scene that reflects the scale of the humanitarian catastrophe left by Israel’s genocide on Gaza, families of those killed during Gaza genocide are struggling to find dignified burial spaces for their loved ones amid overcrowded cemeteries, rising burial costs, and, in some cases, stray dogs disturbing makeshift graves.
Inside Sheikh Radwan Cemetery in central Gaza City, local resident Sheikh Hamdi says families can no longer find “even half a meter” to bury their loved ones, as functioning burial grounds in the Strip are now effectively limited to Sheikh Radwan and the Baptist cemetery near Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the east of the city.
With the daily increase in casualties, the cost of any available burial space has risen sharply to between 1,200 and 1,400 shekels (around $480-$520). In some cases, graves are being reopened to accommodate more than one body in the same burial plot, according to reports broadcast by Al Jazeera Live.
The crisis has extended beyond official cemeteries, forcing hundreds of families to turn home gardens and courtyards into temporary burial sites after being unable to access public cemeteries or afford the soaring costs of burial services.
The Israeli blockade has further deepened the crisis by preventing the entry of essential construction materials such as cement and stone, pushing residents to use rubble from destroyed homes and mud to create fragile graves that offer minimal protection.
According to eyewitness accounts, some shallow graves, often less than half a meter deep, have been disturbed by stray dogs due to weak covering materials and the use of corrugated metal sheets, resulting in bodies being exposed and left in the streets, in harrowing scenes that underscore the scale of collapse in the territory.
Journalists have also documented extensive bulldozing inside several cemeteries, including Al-Batsh Cemetery east of Gaza, which has led to the loss of grave markers and the mixing of human remains, leaving families unable to identify the burial sites of their relatives.
This comes as Israel continues to control large parts of the Strip while systematically destroying civilian infrastructure, including cemeteries, amid the genocide that has killed more than 72,000 civilians and injured over 172,000 since October 2023, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
