‘Land for the dead now the only refuge for the living’: Graveyards as shelters in Gaza
With no safe shelter left and no land to return to, many families in Gaza are now pitching tents inside graveyards – not because they want to, but because it’s the last free space available.
“Graveyards have become shelters not out of choice, but out of desperation. With rents soaring and no empty land left, Rami, a father of 12, displaced from Beit Hanoon, could not find any option other than this graveyard in Khan Younis,” said Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary, reporting from the gravesite.
“For parents, the emotional toll is heavy. The psychological trauma of war is made worse by having to raise children among tombstones,” Rami Musleh told Al Jazeera.
Another resident, Sabah Muhammed, says the cemeteries have now lost all their sacredness. “Graveyards, once sacred spaces for the dead, are now silent witnesses to a living crisis. No water, no electricity, and no privacy … only the bare minimum to survive,” she told Al Jazeera.
“In Gaza, even the land for the dead is now the only refuge for the living.”
UNRWA says millions of tonnes of debris litter Gaza Strip
On X, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees says that 61 million tonnes of rubble, the result of two years of unrestricted Israeli attacks, are now piled up in Gaza. The agency said its teams on the ground are working to help families maintain the basics of life after their neighbourhoods were wiped out.
UNRWA was banned from operating inside Palestinian territory by the Israeli government, which accused its employees of “terrorism” and Hamas membership. Yesterday, the International Court of Justice found, among other things, that the Israeli government did not provide enough evidence to substantiate these claims.
What do you even do with all that...
Families in Gaza tents continue to struggle to meet their daily needs
We’re currently in Az-Zawayda, and we’re in one of the makeshift camps in the central area. Every corner of this camp has a story.
These tents are very small for the number of Palestinian family members. Families are still cooking on handmade stoves on wood because they do not have any source of cooking gas, blocked from entering the Gaza Strip. A little amount has entered, but not every Palestinian family has received their portion.
Palestinians do not have washing machines and have to fill up gallons of water to wash clothes. They are queueing in lines every day for long hours to get a couple of buckets of water. This water is also for drinking and for showering.
This is the daily struggle for them. Let me also remind you that, for a long period of time, no hygiene products have been entering, so Palestinian mothers are also struggling to wash and provide hygiene for their children.
Most of the Palestinians in this makeshift camp are unable to go back to their houses for a couple of reasons. One is that their houses have been completely destroyed. They are also unable to go back to the north because of the huge expenses. Another thing is that their houses are in the yellow line, which is where the Israeli forces are stationed.
Palestinians do not have any other choice but to try to survive all of these inhumane situations.
