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They filled morgues and flooded cemeteries. Families fleeing the attacks buried their dead wherever they could: in yards, parking lots, under stairways and along roads, according to eyewitness testimony and video footage. Others lay under the rubble, their families unsure whether they would be included in the death toll.
However, official figures only show the number of people killed by bombs and bullets.
“Those who died from the indirect consequences of the war, including disease, hunger and the collapse of the health system, are not included in the war casualties,” said Dr. Marwan Hames, adding that immediately after the war they would set up a committee to count the victims.
Israeli officials have questioned the death toll reported by Gaza authorities because health officials from Hamas, which rules the territory, have been unable to confirm the figures.
However, after most of the conflict between 2009 and 2011, UN investigators tallied their own death tolls and concluded that the figures were very close to those in Gaza.
“Unfortunately, every few years we have a sad experience working with the (Gaza) Ministry of Health to count the number of deaths,” said Farhan Haq, the secretary-general’s spokesman, adding that the death toll in Gaza appeared generally accurate.
Health officials and civil protection workers say the true death toll is likely to be in the thousands, including bodies buried under the rubble, which the United Nations says weighs 40 million tons.
“Gaza, it seems, is destined to become a vast cemetery, full of streets, parks and houses where the only living people are the dead waiting for their turn,” wrote Yusri al-Ghur, a Palestinian writer at the Palestine Institute.
Haneen Salem, a photographer and writer from northern Gaza who lost more than 270 extended family members in the bombings and shelling, said 15 to 20 of the bodies had been exhumed, some after soldiers destroyed cemeteries and others moved by relatives fearing Israeli forces would destroy their graves.
“I don’t know how to explain what it’s like to see the bodies of loved ones scattered on the ground, a piece of flesh here, a bone there,” she said. “After the war, if we are still alive, we will dig a new grave and sprinkle it with roses and water to honor their kind souls.”
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