Gazans bury scores of unidentified Palestinian dead in mass graves

For the second time in a week, the health ministry in Gaza has decided to bury scores of bodies of unidentified Palestinian dead in a mass grave. 

“The unidentified Palestinian dead, were killed by the Israeli airstrike attacks in various places in the coastal enclave and their bodies were scattered,” Salama Maarouf, the head of the Hamas-run government's press office in Gaza, said in a press statement sent to The New Arab on Saturday.

A total of 43 bodies were buried. 

Maarouf added that “some of the bodies belong to mothers and their children who were holding them during the Israeli attacks. As a result, their remains were combined and we could not separate them.” 

"some of the bodies belong to entire families who were killed by the Israeli occupation,” he added.

In an attempt to allow their relatives to identify them later, Maarouf said, “we have documented all the bodies and photographed all of distinguishing marks of them before buring them in the mass grave.” 

On October 15, the health ministry buried the first batch of 63 unidentified dead after they had stayed for many days in fridges without being identified by relatives. 

For more than two weeks, the besieged coastal enclave have been the target of fierce and indiscriminate strikes, with at least 4,385 Palestinians killed and over 13,000 wounded. An estimated 70% of casualties have been women and children.

The Israeli strikes began after Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing an estimated 1,400 Israelis and capturing around 200 hostages. 

Since then, Israel declared a state of war on the strip and killed thousands of locals and wounded tens of thousands.