GAZA STRIP (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – As Gaza’s hospital morgues overflow with victims killed in Israel’s bombardment triggered by a deadly Hamas attack, even an ice-cream truck has been used to hold corpses before their burial.
Gaza interior ministry said on Tuesday that at least 49 Palestinians were killed in overnight Israeli strikes on homes in Khan Younis and Rafah. On the other hand, Israel’s military said it killed four people who had tried to cross the fence bordering Lebanon and plant an explosive device.
Israel has been pounding Gaza targets for days, seeking to wipe out the enclave’s rulers Hamas after its militants broke through the militarised border barrier on October 7 to kill more than 1,400 people in southern Israel.
Israel’s air strikes have claimed more than 2,800 lives in Gaza, where mortuaries with capacity only for dozens are filling up more quickly than relatives can claim them.
Among them are multiple members of Talaat Abu Lashine’s family.
“Two shells fell on the house at dawn. Sixteen people were at home, including eight children who were sleeping peacefully,” he said.
In Gaza City a little further north, from where tens of thousands of inhabitants have heeded Israel’s warning to flee south ahead of an expected ground invasion, many bodies were simply left behind in the mortuaries.
“Given the large number of martyrs lying unclaimed in the morgue of al-Shifa hospital, the deterioration of the corpses and the continued arrival” of dozens more, “a common grave has been prepared to bury around 100” of them
