Gazas Cemetery of the Missing Reveals Human Remains with Identified Names

Gaza’s Deir el-Balah Cemetery Established to Burial Unidentified Bodies

A cemetery in the Gaza Strip has been established to inter unidentified bodies and missing persons who could not be identified following Israel’s military operations. The cemetery, known as the “cemetery of the missing” or “numbered graves cemetery,” was created due to the urgent need for more burial sites.

Lina al-Assi, a 26-year-old mother of two, has been searching for her husband, Jihad Tafesh, who went missing in October 2023. He stayed behind in their home in Gaza City’s Shujayea area during the war, while she fled with their children. Al-Assi visited the cemetery regularly, hoping to find a grave matching her husband’s description.

The cemetery received its first bodies in October 2025, following an agreement between Israel and Hamas that allowed for the transfer of dead Palestinians to Gaza. The bodies were transferred via the Red Cross to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, where they were identified through various means.

According to Ziad Obaid, head of the cemeteries department at Gaza’s Ministry of Religious Endowments, the cemetery is a response to the growing number of unidentified bodies. The bodies buried there come from various locations, including under rubble, streets, and hospital courtyards. Obaid noted that the main challenge is identifying the bodies due to their severe condition.

The cemetery has received over 1,200 bodies so far, with more being retrieved daily. Al-Assi spent two weeks searching for her husband at the hospital where some of the bodies were kept, but was unable to identify one of them before it was buried. The cemetery remains a place of sorrow and uncertainty for families like al-Assi’s, who are left to search for loved ones in a war-torn environment.

Source: Al Jazeera