Displaced Gazans rebury their loved ones closer to home

Families exhume sons and daughters killed during the war to place them in graves where they can visit often

People dig at the site of temporary graves near Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza city, shortly after a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold. EPA

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As displaced families return to northern Gaza, many are refusing to leave behind the bodies of loved ones killed during the war, choosing instead to rebury them in cemeteries closer to home. This allows families to visit the graves regularly and keep the memory of the people they lost alive.

Amal Abu Al Eish, 48, a resident of Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood in Gaza city and a mother of seven, is among those who had to make that difficult decision. Her 17-year-old daughter Hanan was killed in an Israeli air strike and buried in an agricultural plot in Khan Younis, the southern city to which the family fled after the war between Israel and Hamas began in October 2023.

“I told my husband and children: 'if my martyred daughter’s body doesn’t return before me to the north, then I will never return'. She is my soul, the light of my heart, and my entire life,’” Ms Abu Al Eish told The National.

After informing the relevant authorities at the local hospital, the family was provided with a burial bag and was able to retrieve Hanan's remains.

“We transported her with us in the car and reburied her in Sheikh Radwan Cemetery, near our home, so I could continue to visit her, talk to her whenever I miss her and be close to her," Ms Abu Al Eish said.

Marked shallow graves at a cemetery in Deir Al Balah, central Gaza. AFP

“When they opened my daughter's grave, all I wished for was to embrace her. Throughout the journey, I sat beside her, talking to her, wishing she could respond. It was agonising to travel all that distance with my daughter’s body, sitting beside her, yet knowing she could not hear me.”

Rabah Al Masri, 53, from Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, is a father of nine. Two of his sons, Mohammed, 22, and Bahaa, 19, were killed in an Israeli air strike on tents housing displaced people in Al Mawasi, Khan Younis, six months ago. They were buried in a temporary grave in a private plot of land.

Mr Al Masri found his home completely destroyed when he returned to Beit Hanoun but that did not deter him. He decided to head back south with his family to fetch their belongings and his sons' bodies, then return north to live in a tent next to the rubble of his home.

"The first thing that came to our minds was moving the bodies of our two sons. I had dreamt of seeing them married and becoming the best of people, but God took them.”

After notifying the Ministry of Endowments and the Ministry of Health, Mr Al Masri received burial bags and proceeded to exhume his sons' remains. They were placed in a car and taken back north in a trip that took more than 15 hours due to stops at checkpoints, he said. Mohammed and Bahaa were finally laid to rest in a cemetery close to where the family home once stood.

“It was an indescribably painful experience. The heartbreak of moving your martyred sons from one place to another, knowing they are now lifeless, with no way to speak to them, embrace them or feel their presence as before, it is a pain beyond words.”

Aware that many families want to do the same, the Ministry of Endowments has issued guidance on how to ensure reburials are conducted in accordance with Islamic regulations.

Speaking to The National, the ministry's media officer Ikrami Al Madallal said Gaza has 60 cemeteries, some of which were already full before the war, while others reached capacity during the 15-month bombardment of the strip. The ministry is now working with authorities to establish new graveyards.

“The transfer of any body cannot be done randomly," Mr Al Madallal said. "All transfers must be co-ordinated with the Ministry of Endowments, the Ministry of Local Governance and other relevant government bodies to maintain order and uphold the sanctity of the deceased."