Gaza: “We don’t even have body bags anymore”

The situation in the Gaza Strip continues to worsen dramatically. “Due to the intensification of Israeli bombings and human losses in northern Gaza, we no longer have body bags to bury the dead,” testifies Palestinian journalist Hossam Sabath. “We are reduced to using clothes or blankets for funerals.”

In Beit Hanoun, at least twenty civilians died this Sunday, December 15 in a series of Israeli bombings. The strikes notably hit a school housing displaced people, causing several victims including a family of four. The survivors, according to testimonies collected by Al Jazeera, find themselves trapped, without access to medical care, with hospitals in the area out of service.

The toll is also rising among the ranks of rescuers and journalists. Another bombing by the Israeli criminal army in the Nuseirat refugee camp claimed the lives of three members of the Palestinian civil defense and Al Jazeera cameraman Ahmed al-Louh, bringing to 195 the number of journalists killed since on October 7.

In a damning 296-page report released on December 5, Amnesty International describes Israeli crimes as “genocide,” citing the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure and the massive displacement of the population. “Month after month, Israel has treated the Palestinians of Gaza as a subhuman group unworthy of human rights and dignity,” says Agnès Callamard, secretary general of the NGO.