Palestinian Christians are afraid to travel on dangerous roads leading to their own cemeteries in the Gaza Strip.
They are burying their loved ones in Muslim cemeteries amid the chaos of its bombing and ground operations Israel.
Since the war broke out six months ago, Israeli shelling has killed more than 33,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to health ministry figures in Gaza Strip. Some people have lost entire families.
“I have been working in this cemetery for almost 10 years and this is the first time in my life that I have seen something like this,” said Ihsan al-Natur, a worker at the Tal al-Sultan cemetery in the Gaza Strip, as a man lifted a corpse wrapped in a shroud and places it in a tomb. “I had never seen a Christian buried in a Muslim cemetery, but because of this war, we had no choice but to bury him here.”
Most of the coastal enclave has been reduced to scorched earth, with entire buildings reduced to rubble. Badly damaged hospitals are unable to care for the wounded, with hunger and possible starvation adding to the woes.
Traveling on roads that may be bombed adds to the anxiety for those trying to bury their dead. Israel has not yet allowed residents of northern Gaza, where the Christian cemetery is located, to return.
al-Natur stated that the body of a Christian was buried in the Tal al-Sultan cemetery, as it was too dangerous for his family to travel amid the siege. His relatives didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye to him properly.
“So we buried him here in the Tal al-Sultan cemetery. We do not discriminate between Muslims and Christians here. He was buried among Muslims and there is no symbol to show that he is a Christian,” he said.
Cooperation between Christians and Muslims is not unusual in Gaza.
“I have to take care of him because he is a Christian. We must protect God’s creatures on this earth,” said al-Natur. “He is a human being, we respect human beings and we value humanity and we love every person on earth. It is not in our nature as Muslims to hate humanity.”
According to the newsit, the war broke out on October 7 when its gunmen Hamas invaded Israel from Gaza, killing 1,200 people, according to official Israeli figures, sparking the Israeli offensive.
This cemetery is likely to receive many more people as the death toll among Palestinians increases every day.
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