Deir el-Balah, Gaza Band – It was late Friday evening and Amani al-Hor, 28, had just returned home when the missile struck her parents’ house next door.
Amani had spent a few hours there that evening, playing cards with her cousin to take her mind off the noise of the aerial bombardments. She had talked with her siblings, then brought her four children, who she said were “a nuisance,” into their own home.
That evening, eight families spanning three generations lived under his parents’ roof in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Amani’s parents, their married children, their grandchildren, and other family members who had been displaced from their homes had all gathered together.
Shortly after 8 p.m., an Israeli airstrike targeted the house. At least 40 members of Amani’s family were killed, including her parents, almost all of her siblings and each of their children.
The attack also damaged Amani’s house.
“I just noticed the walls and ceiling were falling on us,” she said. “I didn’t hear the sound of the missile. It was like being in a tomb. Somehow I grabbed my four kids in the dark and we managed to get out.
Still in shock, she began counting the members of her family who had been killed.
“My sister and her four children; my brother, his wife and their four daughters; my other sister-in-law, her son and her two daughters – but her husband, my other brother, survived,” she said. “There were a lot of people in the building and the children were making a lot of noise. Most of them are still under the rubble. »
“I wish I could see my father,” Amani said. “I only saw his back that night, he was saying something to my siblings as I was leaving. My mother’s body is torn into pieces. At the hospital, all I saw was his arms and his intestines coming out of his stomach.
Amani was very close to her sisters and spoke to them every day.
“I wish I had been killed with them,” she said.
More space in cemeteries
More than 9,000 Palestinians – the majority of them women and children – have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of their offensive on the Gaza Strip on October 7. More than 32,000 others were injured.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed every day and night since the bombing began, overwhelming hospitals, which are now in a state of collapse due to the total blockade imposed by Israel. Electricity, drinking water and fuel have run out, and there are no medical supplies or life-saving treatments. At least 15 hospitals and medical centers were forced to cease operations, meaning patients had to be transferred to the remaining hospitals, which were already overcrowded.
The large number of casualties over the past 24 days has led to an acceleration of funeral rites and burials, with the added anguish of laying family members in mass graves.
“Before the war, funerals were followed by rituals,” said Mukhtar al-Hor, 57 and close to Amani. “Dozens or hundreds of people prayed for the deceased before transporting them to the cemetery for burial. Today, there are only a handful of people available to pray for their loved ones. »
Mukhtar said at least 18 bodies had so far been pulled from the rubble of the Nuseirat refugee camp, but some of them were body parts that could not be identified.
“I can’t describe what it’s like to bury your family in a mass grave,” he said. “They are devoid of the funeral rites to which we were accustomed in ordinary times.”
Diab al-Jaru, the mayor of Deir el-Balah, said the city has been the scene of at least 20 major attacks carried out by Israel over the past four weeks against its residents and internally displaced people sheltering there. .
“So far, more than 400 people have been killed in Deir el-Balah alone,” he told Al Jazeera. “The large number of people killed means that we are running out of space in the cemetery, which was already full, because before the war, we buried two to three people from the same family in a single grave.”
Now the mayor said there is no other option than to bury people in mass graves, usually separated by gender.
“On Friday evening alone, 150 people were killed. We had no choice but to bury them all together,” al-Jaru said.
Wrapped, prayed and buried
Palestinians often refer to those killed in Israeli attacks as “martyrs,” and their funeral processions usually have deep meaning for people in their communities.
But the current, exceptional assault on Gaza has interrupted not only these processions, but also the funeral rituals that usually followed.
Normally, after being washed, the body of a loved one is transported to the family home where the women can say their final goodbyes. Then the body is taken to the mosque to be prayed for by the men, before being transported either in a vehicle or carried by a large congregation to the cemetery.
Abu Ammar is the supervisor of washing bodies according to Islamic rituals at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah. He said he had been receiving hundreds of bodies daily since the assault began nearly four weeks ago.
Now, the funeral prayer is performed in the hospital grounds immediately after the body has been washed, in the presence of only a small number of people or anyone available, before being taken away for burial in a mass grave without headstones instead of a single grave with a marble. tomb stone.
“Before the war, the bodies of adults were wrapped in three different shrouds,” he explained.
“We washed them twice with soap and water, and the third time we used camphor. But in the current circumstances, we have neither the time nor the means to do this. Instead, we immediately wrap them in one piece due to the shortages we face and try to wipe the blood from their faces.
The torn body parts, he added, are first wrapped in a plastic covering and then covered with a shroud, so as not to stain it.
Due to their number, the hospital administration was forced to place some bodies outside, in the courtyard.
Ammar, who has a calm demeanor, said he saw a shocking number of mutilated bodies.
“I received bodies burned beyond recognition, bodies with torn limbs, emptied and broken skulls, bodies emitting chemical odors,” the 45-year-old said.
“The most violent weapons, manufactured by the United States, are being used against us,” he added. “This aggression crossed all red lines and violated all international human rights laws. The world must stop this barbaric war against us.
