{"id":120710,"date":"2023-10-29T18:51:10","date_gmt":"2023-10-29T18:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/?p=120710"},"modified":"2023-10-29T18:51:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T18:51:10","slug":"cemeteries-overflowing-in-gaza-as-death-toll-soars-forcing-use-of-mass-graves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cottontailsonline.com\/world-news\/cemeteries-overflowing-in-gaza-as-death-toll-soars-forcing-use-of-mass-graves\/","title":{"rendered":"Cemeteries overflowing in Gaza as death toll soars forcing use of mass graves"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Cemeteries in the Gaza Strip are reportedly overflowing with residents digging up old graves to add new bodies as the death toll mounts in the enclave.<\/p>\n

In the last 48 hours, Israel has stepped up operations against Hamas in Gaza ramping up airstrikes and launching a ground offensive in the north of the strip.<\/p>\n

Hamas-run Palestinian health authorities claim the death toll in Gaza has topped 8,000 while reports have emerged of entire families being killed in the fighting.<\/p>\n

In Gaza\u2019s central town of Zawaideh, a 22-year-old Palestinian photojournalist buried 32 members of his family who were killed in Israeli air raids last Sunday.<\/p>\n

Omar Dirawi unloaded their bodies from the back of a truck, digging a narrow trench partitioned with cinder blocks and reciting abbreviated funeral prayers before nightfall when Israeli warplanes screeched overhead and everyone ran indoors.<\/p>\n

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Dirawi said of the mass burial: “There\u2019s nothing that feels right about this. I haven\u2019t even grieved. But I had no choice. The cemetery was full and there was no space.”<\/p>\n

Hospitals and morgues are said to have been overwhelmed by the huge amount of wounded and dead as a result of the war.<\/p>\n

Since October 7, when Hamas mounted a bloody and unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel, the Israeli military\u2019s response has left over 8,000 Palestinians dead, said the Gaza-based Health Ministry yesterday.<\/p>\n

Of the dead, it added, nearly 300 have not been identified. Fear and panic were spreading Saturday as Israel expanded its ground incursion and intensified bombardment.<\/p>\n

An estimated 1,700 people remain trapped beneath the rubble as Israel\u2019s air raids impede and imperil civil defence workers, one of whom was killed during a rescue mission Friday. Overcrowded cemeteries have compelled families to dig up long-buried bodies and deepen the holes.<\/p>\n

Don’t miss… <\/strong> Jewish residents chant ‘death to Arabs’ outside Palestinian student dorms[REPORT] <\/strong><\/p>\n

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