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As Gaza death toll passes 40,000, corpses are buried in yards, streets, tiered graves

By JULIA FRANKEL and WAFAA SHURAFA, JULIA FRANKEL and WAFAA SHURAFA, Associated Press
Published: August 15, 2024, 8:20am
3 Photos
FILE - A woman mourns the covered bodies of her child and her husband killed in an Israeli army bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in the hospital in Khan Younis, Tuesday Dec. 5, 2023.
FILE - A woman mourns the covered bodies of her child and her husband killed in an Israeli army bombardment of the Gaza Strip, in the hospital in Khan Younis, Tuesday Dec. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair, File) Photo Gallery

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Tiers of graves are stacked deep underground in a bloated Gaza cemetery, where Sa’di Baraka spends his days hacking at the earth, making room for more dead.

“Sometimes we make graves on top of graves,” he said.

Baraka and his solemn corps of volunteer gravediggers in the Deir al-Balah cemetery start at sunrise, digging new trenches or reopening existing ones.

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