Graves on Top of Graves… Undertakers in Gaza Are Exhausted

Palestinian gravedigger Saadi Hassan Barakeh say he has been burying the dead for 28 years, but has never been so busy amid the Gaza war. MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
Palestinian gravedigger Saadi Hassan Barakeh say he has been burying the dead for 28 years, but has never been so busy amid the Gaza war. MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
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Graves on Top of Graves… Undertakers in Gaza Are Exhausted

Palestinian gravedigger Saadi Hassan Barakeh say he has been burying the dead for 28 years, but has never been so busy amid the Gaza war. MAHMUD HAMS / AFP
Palestinian gravedigger Saadi Hassan Barakeh say he has been burying the dead for 28 years, but has never been so busy amid the Gaza war. MAHMUD HAMS / AFP

More than 10 months into the Gaza war, so many bodies are arriving at Al-Soueid cemetery in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah that gravediggers are forced to build graves on top of other graves.

Undertakers are working like bricklayers in the cemetery, piling cinder blocks into tight rectangles, side by side, for freshly dug graves.

Leading his team of gravediggers, Saadi Hassan Barakeh, 63, now handles Al-Soueid cemetery, with its 5.5 hectares of graves. Previously, he also oversaw burials at the nearby Ansar cemetery, which covers 3.5 hectares. But now “the Ansar cemetery is completely full,” he told AFP.

The two cemeteries are located in the city of Deir el-Balah in the center of the Gaza Strip that has been bombarded by Israel for more than ten months after Hamas launched the unprecedented October 7 attack in Israel.

“Before the war, we had one or two funerals per week, maximum five,” Barakeh says, wearing a white prayer cap that matches his long beard.

“Now, there are weeks when I bury 200 to 300 people. It's unbelievable.”

Yet even with one cemetery instead of two, Barakeh said he works “every day, from six in the morning to six in the evening.”

Piles of Martyrs

Barakeh, leading his team of gravediggers, says “The cemetery is so full that we now dig graves on top of other graves, we've piled the dead in levels.”

Barakeh has been burying the dead for 28 years. In “all the wars in Gaza,” he says he has “never seen crimes like this.”

Barakeh bears daily witness to the tragedies. Hoe in hand, he gives encouragement to his 12 workers as they prepare and close dozens of graves every day.

At night, however, some images are hard to forget.

“I can't sleep after seeing so many mangled children's bodies and dead women,” he told AFP, adding: “I buried 47 women from the Tabatibi family, including 16 who were pregnant. What crime have these women committed?”

The October 7 Hamas attack which triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 40,005 people in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

“I buried a lot of women and children, and only two or three guys from Hamas,” says Barakeh.

‘Why the children?’

If Israelis “have a problem with (Yahya) Sinwar and with (Ismail) Haniyeh, why do they harm children?” he adds angrily.

Barakeh is convinced that the Israelis want to eliminate the entire Palestinian people.

Graves with white headstones fill nearly all the available space, while men dig new holes in the few vacant areas.

The team forms a human chain to carry the cinder blocks, whose price has soared since Gaza’s factories closed due to a lack of fuel and raw materials.

“One shekel ($0.27) before the war, 10 or 12 today,” he lamented.

Besides gravediggers and the workers carrying cinder blocks, hardly anyone comes to funerals anymore, Barakeh says.

“Before the war, there were sometimes 1,000 people at one funeral; today there are days when we bury 100 people and there aren’t even 20 to lay them to rest.”

High above his head, the constant hum of an Israeli surveillance drone serves as a reminder of the aerial threat creating a steady stream of bodies.



Cash Shortage Squeezes Gaza Residents

Palestinian children queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on April 30, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinian children queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on April 30, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Cash Shortage Squeezes Gaza Residents

Palestinian children queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on April 30, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Palestinian children queue for a hot meal at a charity kitchen in Gaza City on April 30, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Even when food is available, many in Gaza cannot afford to buy it, as the enclave suffers from a severe cash shortage. Israel has blocked the entry of new currency into the territory since October 7, 2023, leaving residents at the mercy of money changers who have hiked exchange rates on remittances to exorbitant levels.

Palestinians in Gaza primarily rely on the Israeli shekel for daily transactions, which used to enter the strip through banks operating under the Palestinian Monetary Authority, supplied by the Bank of Israel.

Banking operations in Gaza have ground to a halt since the start of the war, and no fresh banknotes have entered the enclave, worsening an already dire humanitarian situation. Residents say they have been left at the mercy of traders who exploit the cash shortage to impose arbitrary rules on currency use.

'The Traders’ Game'

Dubbed “the traders’ game” by many in Gaza, the practice began with merchants refusing to accept worn-out banknotes and certain coins, such as the 10-shekel piece (worth about $3), which have all but vanished from local markets. Some vendors now reject older versions of bills - like the brown-hued 100-shekel note (around $28) - insisting instead on the newer yellow ones. The same rules apply to various denominations.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Hani Jahjouh, a resident of al-Shati Camp west of Gaza City, said vendors selling vegetables and essential goods - when available - often refuse worn banknotes or specific coins, claiming they are counterfeit or easily faked.

“This just adds to the burden of people already crushed by impossible living conditions,” said Jahjouh, 59. “We don’t have solutions. We don’t even know where to get the money they’re asking for.”

Only a very small number of traders accept digital payments, and even then, residents say, they impose tough conditions - such as inflated prices or demands for partial payment in cash.

Displaced Gazan Duaa Ismail, originally from Beit Hanoun in the north of the enclave, says even when goods are available, she cannot afford them due to a lack of cash.

“We’re suffering badly from a shortage of money, and that makes it even harder to get basic items like flour and sugar - when they’re even in stock,” she told Asharq Al-Awsat from a shelter in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood.

Ismail said that during a brief ceasefire, some traders had accepted digital payments through mobile apps. “But once the war resumed, things worsened, and they stopped taking them altogether,” she said.

Salaries They Can’t Spend

The crisis has also hit public-sector employees, private workers, and international aid staff, many of whom receive salaries through bank transfers or mobile wallets but have no way of accessing their funds with banks shuttered. They are forced to rely on currency dealers or traders with access to physical cash.

Amjad Hasballah, an employee with the Palestinian Authority, said he has been cashing his monthly salary through mobile banking apps for over a year and a half, paying a steep commission to money traders in return.

“When I received my last salary in early April, the commission had reached 30%,” he said.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat, Hasballah explained that at the start of the war, commissions hovered around 5%, but they spiked during Ramadan, peaking at 35% around Eid al-Fitr, before dipping slightly to 30%.

“My salary is just 2,800 shekels. When I pay a 30% fee, there’s barely anything left,” he said bitterly. “At this point, the traders might as well take the whole salary and just give us pocket money.”

Caught in a Trap

Jamal Al-Mashal, a father of six who lost two children in an Israeli airstrike, said he lives off 1,000 shekels (about $280) in monthly international aid. But even that amount is slashed by up to 30% when he exchanges it through local traders.

“People in Gaza have become a cash trap for currency dealers and big traders,” he said. “They’re exploiting our desperation, and it’s like a harvest season for them - raking in profits while we suffer.”

The poorest and most vulnerable are hit hardest. Many international agencies rely on electronic payment platforms to distribute aid to these groups, who often have no access to physical currency.

No Oversight, No Restraint

The Hamas-run government has made attempts to cap commission rates at 5%, but those efforts have largely failed. Officials blame ongoing Israeli targeting of personnel involved in regulating the process.

Money changers defend the high fees, arguing that the lack of currency entering Gaza leaves them with limited options.

“We raise commission rates because there’s simply no new cash coming in,” one trader told Asharq Al-Awsat. “Once money is distributed to the public, we have no way of getting it back. What goes out doesn’t return.”

He added that while ministries and law enforcement have tried to impose limits, traders view the rules as unfair. “There have been attempts to regulate us, but we haven’t complied - they’re asking too much from us under impossible conditions,” he said.

Some municipal leaders and community elders in Gaza have recently appealed to the Palestinian Monetary Authority in Ramallah to intervene in what they describe as unchecked profiteering by traders controlling access to scarce cash.

They have called for greater oversight, including monitoring and freezing the traders’ bank accounts.

The authority has repeatedly warned against exploitation of civilians and threatened to take action. But in practice, traders continue to charge hefty commissions on money transfers with little deterrence.

The Authority has urged residents to use its Instant Payment System available through mobile banking apps, which it says offers a practical alternative to cash, promotes digital payments, and enables real-time transactions.

Cash Squeeze Tightens Further

Despite the hardship, Israel is considering new measures that could further tighten the financial stranglehold on Gaza. One proposal involves withdrawing the 200-shekel banknote (worth about $55) from circulation, on the grounds that Hamas allegedly uses it to pay salaries to its fighters.

The suggestion was reportedly made by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron, who rejected the move. Other proposals include voiding the serial numbers of banknotes believed to be inside Gaza, effectively rendering them worthless, a step that could deliver a significant financial blow to Hamas.

According to a report published Tuesday by the Israeli daily Maariv, the proposal has backing from several ministers and economists both within and outside the central bank.

The report estimated that around 10 billion shekels in high-denomination bills - 100 and 200 shekels - remain in circulation within Gaza. These notes entered the enclave over the years through official banking channels supplied by the Bank of Israel.

Economists told Maariv that Gaza residents receive an estimated 150 to 200 million shekels each month through digital transfers from aid organizations and the Palestinian Authority. That money is then converted into cash within markets dominated by Hamas and supported by a network of money changers.

Israeli security sources estimate that Hamas has accumulated up to five billion shekels since the war began and has spent nearly one billion shekels on salaries for fighters and new recruits. The sources claim Hamas has profited significantly by reselling aid and fuel at inflated prices during the conflict.