Living Among the Dead: Displaced Families Shelter in Khan Younis Cemetery

Living Among the Dead: Displaced Families Shelter in Khan Younis Cemetery

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip — For many Palestinians with nowhere else to go, cemeteries in Gaza have become makeshift neighborhoods where the living sleep beside the dead. In a sun-baked burial ground in southern Khan Younis, gravestones serve as seats and tables for roughly 30 families who have sheltered there for months.

Children play between headstones by day — a fair-haired toddler runs fingers through sand while another peeks from behind a draped piece of cloth — but nights bring fear. Families say they worry about dogs, the darkness and the eerie presence of graves close to their tents.

“When the sun goes down, the children get scared and don’t want to go… They are afraid to go out because of the dogs at night, and the dead,” said Maisa Brikah, who has lived in the cemetery with her four small children for five months.

More than two million people in Gaza have been displaced by two years of fighting between Hamas and Israel. Since the ceasefire that began on Oct. 10, some families have returned to damaged homes; many others remain crowded into areas not controlled by Israeli forces or have nowhere safe to go.

Residents describe a daily routine amid graves: a prayer rug hung on a line, a child pushing a water jug on a wheelchair between tombs, and the thin column of smoke from cooking fires. Yet there is a pervasive sense of unease and a recognition that camping among graves can feel disrespectful.

Many sheltering here fled towns and neighborhoods — some from northern Gaza — leaving behind homes and, in some cases, the burial sites of relatives. Mohammed Shmah, who has stayed in the cemetery for three months after his house was destroyed, said he hides in his tent at night despite being a grown man.

“I’m a grown man, but I still get scared of the graves at night. I hide in my tent,” Mohammed said, recalling that he had only 200 shekels (about $60) when a friend helped bring his family to the cemetery.

Women such as Mohammed’s wife, Hanan Shmah, described carefully conserving water and washing dishes in a small container to make resources last. Money for safer shelter is scarce, and ongoing security concerns leave families with few options.

There is no guarantee of safety even among the dead. The United Nations and other observers report that Israeli forces have bombed cemetery sites during the war. Israel says Hamas has used some cemeteries for military purposes and argues such use affects the sites' protections under international law.

During the fighting, many bodies were buried wherever space allowed, including hospital courtyards, disrupting customary practices of burying families near loved ones. With the ceasefire, authorities and relatives are searching for the dead: Israel is pressing Hamas to return the remains of captives, Palestinian health officials have posted photos to help families identify returned bodies, and search teams continue to recover remains from rubble-strewn areas.

Gaza’s official death toll from the war has surpassed 68,800 and has risen by hundreds since the ceasefire began as more remains have been recovered. In Khan Younis, new burials continue to arrive, sometimes covered only by sand and marked by stones rather than slabs.

Amid the day-to-day routines and the ongoing search for the missing, talk of recovery, reconstruction and return feels distant. “After the ceasefire my life is the same inside the cemetery, meaning I gained nothing,” Mohammed said.