DaysofPal – With Gaza’s humanitarian crisis deepening, some displaced Palestinian families have been forced to seek refuge in cemeteries after exhausting all other shelter options. Among them is the family of Mazen Younis, who, along with his wife and ten children, now lives in a cemetery in the Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
The family’s ordeal began after the Israeli military offensive forced them to flee their home in the Al-Manara neighborhood of Khan Younis. After repeated displacement across different parts of the Strip, they eventually settled in the cemetery of the Austrian neighborhood in Al-Mawasi, having found nowhere else to live.
Younis told Al Jazeera that he had been in the occupied West Bank receiving medical treatment when the war began. He returned to Gaza in 2025 to find his family living in extremely harsh humanitarian conditions.
For the past year and a half, the family has lived inside the cemetery, where they lack even the most basic necessities of life. Insects, rodents, and scorpions pose constant threats, while makeshift fabric sheets are all that separate them from the surrounding graves.
Suffering from heart disease, Younis relies on his young daughters to fetch water, even when it is unsafe for drinking.
He lamented that instead of attending school, his children spend their days carrying water.
“My children have nothing to do with the war Israel is waging on the Gaza Strip,” he said.
Living in Isolation and Hardship
Younis said his family has been largely overlooked despite its desperate circumstances.
He described the psychological toll of living in the cemetery, saying his weight has dropped from 120 kilograms to 67 kilograms due to the hardship.
His wife also described the family’s daily struggle, particularly during the summer heat.
“We don’t live like other people,” she said. “We have no cooking gas or other basic necessities. Our children spend their days fetching water and going to the charity kitchen to collect food.”
She recalled the family’s difficult journey of displacement from Khan Younis, saying they searched unsuccessfully for shelter before eventually settling in the cemetery, where they continue to feel abandoned and marginalized.
The couple’s daughters described the routine they have been forced to adopt.
One of the girls said she and her sister walk every day to collect water and food because their father is too ill to do so. She added that the meals provided by the community kitchen are insufficient to feed the entire family.
Cemeteries Become Shelters for the Displaced
The housing crisis extends far beyond the Younis family.
According to an Al Jazeera report from Khan Younis, thousands of displaced families have sought refuge in cemeteries after running out of alternatives, creating the grim reality of families living among graves, particularly affecting children.
The report documented another family that pitched its tent in the middle of the western cemetery in Khan Younis, while hundreds of displaced families from northern Gaza have also erected tents in the area despite the site being unfit for human habitation.
For many families, cemeteries have become places of last resort, where displacement, homelessness, and the ongoing humanitarian crisis have left them with no choice but to live among the dead.
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