'No time to cry or grieve': Inside Gaza's haunting work to identify and bury unnamed martyrs killed in Israel's genocide

In Gaza, where death enters people’s homes without permission, the land has become a silent witness to the tragedy of thousands of unidentifiable martyrs.

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, Palestinians have faced significant challenges in identifying and burying their loved ones, especially those whose bodies have been mutilated or dismembered.

At the Martyrs’ Cemetery in eastern Gaza, for example, rows of small graves are lined up. Numbers, rather than names, are inscribed on cement blocks, with signs in Arabic that read ‘Unknown Martyr’ and ‘Unknown Remains’. Some graves bear no sign at all — just mounds of earth shrouded in heavy silence and mystery.

This harrowing reality shows the scale of destruction caused by Israeli airstrikes, which have left Palestinians facing a form of death that is far from normal, as the army’s intense bombardment of homes, shelters, and hospitals has made it nearly impossible to identify the bodies.

With every new massacre, rescue workers uncover headless bodies, scattered limbs, or remains so badly burned that they cannot be recognised.

Speaking to The New Arab, Red Crescent emergency worker Hajj Mahmoud describes what he says was one of the most devastating scenes he has witnessed.

“In one massacre, we collected the dismembered remains of an entire family,” he says.

“We couldn’t distinguish a child from a woman or a young man from an elder. It was just flesh and bones and torn body parts. We had to collect everything into white bags and bury them together in a shared grave. The tombstone reads: ‘Unknown family – Tal Al-Hawa Massacre.’”

He adds, “It was one of the hardest moments in my life. We wanted to preserve their dignity, even if we didn’t know their names. It was like we were silently apologising to them that this was all we were able to do.”

No names, no goodbyes 

As the death toll continues to rise, Gaza’s morgues are overwhelmed. With no space left and bodies arriving by the hour, morgue workers have been forced to bury victims in mass graves.

One such site is the 'Emergency Grave' in the Tuffah neighbourhood. In a single airstrike, 43 people — most of them dismembered — were buried there. The burial was carried out under the supervision of forensic medicine specialists and the Ministry of Health.

With cemeteries running out of space, workers have had to turn hospitals, wedding halls, and even playgrounds into new mass graves. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has documented 120 new unauthorised mass graves since the start of the war.

Adding to the crisis, the Israeli army has detained around 1,500 unidentified Palestinian bodies — most of them from Gaza — storing them in refrigerated containers inside a military base. This has further increased the number of anonymous graves.

In Khan Younis, 84 unidentified bodies were buried in a mass grave after being detained and released by the Israeli Army. These figures suggest that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of anonymous martyrs as a result of Israel’s war. 

How are the anonymous buried?

Veteran burial worker Hajj Abu Khalil shares with The New Arab that burial teams are working around the clock to keep up with the scale of death.

“There’s no time to cry or grieve,” he says. “We are just constantly removing bodies from the rubble, placing them in bags, and transporting them to the cemetery. Some are known by name due to their ID cards or the screams of a relative, but there are many that we are unable to identify and which no one asks about.” 

Hajj pauses to wipe his face with a trembling hand before continuing.

“We place every anonymous martyr in a special grave with an iron plate inscribed with a number. We take a photo and document the location in a special notebook, which we carry with us at all times. This is so that if anyone were to ever come asking about a missing person, we can go back to our notebook and take a look. This is the least we can do for them.”

He adds that the task has grown so large that medical teams, Ministry of Health workers, and even family members have begun volunteering to help with the process of photographing and documenting the anonymous martyrs.

Any personal belongings found on or near the bodies that might help identify them later are also being preserved. Authorities ensure that each unidentified martyr is buried in a designated grave, marked with a unique number.

Additionally, on some anonymous tombstones, short descriptions are written alongside contact numbers. One grave in Jabalia, for example, reads: ‘Unidentified martyr, his photo is with so-and-so.’

Ultimately, the hope is that someone might recognise the martyr from the description and come forward.

That said, Ministry of Health vehicles now roam the streets, searching for anonymous graves in an effort to match missing persons with the descriptions found on the anonymous graves.

What comes next? 

When Israel’s war on Gaza finally ends, the search for the missing will begin.

Um Ahmed, whose son went missing during the bombing of Al-Shati Camp, says she has been searching for his body for months.

“I haven’t found him in any of the hospitals. I’ve been to the cemeteries and asked about the unmarked graves, and the workers said he might be among them, but there is no evidence of that,” she says.

Gaza’s anonymous graves hold more than unidentifiable bodies. With them lie waiting family members and nameless children. These graves bear witness to the scale of the war and the suffering of a people who have, in many cases, been buried twice: once under the rubble, and again under forgotten graves.

But the people of Gaza have not forgotten. The day will come when a name will be written over every grave, a prayer offered over every body, and each martyr will be told, 'We knew you, and now we honour you'.

Haya Ahmed is a doctor and freelance writer from Gaza