Gaza Faces Severe Shortage of Burial Space as Cemeteries Are Destroyed

DID Press: Continued mass casualties and the destruction of large parts of Gaza’s cemeteries have left the territory facing a severe shortage of burial space. Families have been forced to bury loved ones in gardens, school grounds, tents and displacement camps.

More than 73,000 Palestinians have reportedly been killed during the war, while the destruction of around 40 burial sites across Gaza has further intensified the shortage of graves.

The cemetery in Khan Younis, which had around 60 graves before the war, now contains nearly 6,000 graves, according to the report.

As fighting and shelling have relatively eased in some areas, Palestinians have returned to heavily damaged locations to search for and recover the remains of relatives believed to be trapped beneath the rubble. But recovering the bodies has created another challenge: finding a place to bury them.

With much of Gaza’s infrastructure and numerous cemeteries destroyed, the lack of burial space has emerged as another major humanitarian crisis in the territory.