Civil Defense begins transporting bodies randomly buried in Gaza

Palestinian Civil Defense teams in the Gaza Strip began exhuming dozens of bodies buried in the courtyard of Al-Ahli Alarabi Hospital on Sunday. The bodies had been hastily buried during the Israeli war on Gaza. The exhumations are a prelude to transferring the remains to official cemeteries.

This operation, according to officials, aims to organize the burial of victims after months of haphazard burials due to bombardment, the blockade, and a shortage of designated burial sites.

During the operation, Civil Defense personnel were seen digging up makeshift graves erected within the hospital grounds. The bodies were then removed, placed in special bags, sealed, and their identities documented.

Palestinian Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal stated that specialized teams are working in coordination with other health authorities to transfer the bodies, which he described as having been buried in “random” locations during the war. He added that “the makeshift cemetery at Al-Ahli Hospital contains approximately 45 bodies that will be transferred to the official cemetery in Gaza City.”

Mahmoud Basal added that the bodies for which no identification data was found will be transferred to a designated cemetery in Deir al-Balah, pending the analysis of samples that will be collected later to identify their owners.