Overflowing morgues lead to unusual measures in Gaza
Date
10/17/2023 3:48:19 AM
(MENAFN) Amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the situation in hospital morgues has reached a critical point. The overflowing morgues have led to unusual measures, such as the use of an ice-cream truck to temporarily store corpses awaiting burial. Israel has been conducting a series of airstrikes in Gaza, primarily targeting Hamas, after militants breached the heavily fortified border barrier on October 7, resulting in casualties in southern Israel. The death toll in Gaza has risen significantly, with at least 2,750 lives lost due to Israeli airstrikes.
In Gaza, the mortuaries, originally designed to accommodate only a few dozen bodies, are rapidly filling up, making it challenging for relatives to claim and bury their loved ones. In the central Gaza city of Deir el-Balah, a hospital's car park now holds a white truck adorned with ice-cream stick posters, used to house bodies wrapped in white body bags. Among the deceased are several members of Talaat Abu Lashine's family, who described a devastating scene in which 16 people, including eight children, were inside a house when it was hit by two shells in the early morning.
Further north in Gaza City, many residents have evacuated to the south following Israeli warnings of an expected ground invasion. As a result, many bodies have been left behind in the city's mortuaries. To address the growing number of unclaimed bodies and the deterioration of corpses in the morgues, a common grave has been prepared to bury approximately 100 individuals, according to Salama Maruf, the head of the media bureau for the Hamas government governing Gaza. This development reflects the dire humanitarian situation that has unfolded in the midst of the ongoing conflict, with limited capacity to handle the growing number of casualties.
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