A 65-year-old mortician in Gaza said he has buried at least 18,000 Palestinian bodies since the Israel-Palestine conflict re-emerged in October 2023.
Yousef Abu Hatab, who witnessed one of the worst tragedies in Palestinian history, told news agency Anadolu that he burried the bodies in a cemetery in Khan Younis, even as most bodies that arrived for burial did not have any identity.
“We buried the bodies in harsh conditions, in mass graves, individual graves, and inside hospitals, under unprecedented pressure and a high number of deaths,” Yousef told Anadolu. He once witnessed 15 bodies being buried in one hole.
The mortician took up the job in 2005 and said that the current genocide by Israel is the hardest time of his career. “During the war, I oversaw the burial of between 17,000 and 18,000 Palestinian bodies,” he said.
71,000 Palestinians killed since the start of the war
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has killed nearly 71,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 171,000 since October 2023 in a brutal war that has left the enclave in ruins.
The assault came to a halt under a ceasefire deal that took effect on October 10. Israel, however, has repeatedly violated the agreement.
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, the Israeli army has killed at least 405 Palestinians and injured 1,108 others in attacks since the ceasefire began.
‘Unbearable situation’
The mortician begins work at 6 am, which sometimes extends beyond sunset. He sometimes digs manually, using primitive tools, and collects remnants of stones and tiles from the debris caused by the Israeli bombardment in an attempt to restore the graves and honor the dead.
“The situation has become unbearable. There are no materials to build graves, no shrouds, and no tools because of the Israeli blockade,” he said.
However, the number of burials has declined these days under the ceasefire deal, compared to the first months of the war. Yousef revealed that before the ceasefire, he buried 50-100 Palestinian bodies daily. “Though the numbers have declined, the cemetery still receives dead bodies,” he added.
He recalled burying 550 bodies inside a makeshift grave at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis during an Israeli siege on the hospital in 2024.
In the two years of the genocide, Palestinians in Gaza were forced to create makeshift mass and individual graves in neighborhoods, courtyards, wedding halls and sports fields to bury the victims.
According to the Gaza Government Media Office, the Israeli army destroyed 40 out of 60 cemeteries in the enclave and stole the remains of more than 1,000 Palestinians.
The office also said that 529 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks were exhumed from mass graves inside hospitals, in addition to more than 10,000 bodies still remaining under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Israel still closes all Gaza crossings, preventing the entry of humanitarian aid and materials needed for the reconstruction of the territory despite the ceasefire.
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