“My life, my eyes, my soul,” a husband writes on the white shroud wrapped around his wife after the war devastating Gaza took her life. A bereaved son writes “my mother and everything” on the burial cloth covering his mother, another of the more than 21,000 Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas confrontation.
Quick Read
- Personal Tributes on Shrouds: In the wake of the devastating conflict in Gaza, personal messages are being written on the white shrouds of the deceased. A husband wrote “My life, my eyes, my soul” for his wife, and a son wrote “my mother and everything” for his mother, among the over 21,000 Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas confrontation.
- Symbol of Civilian Deaths: The white cloth has become a poignant symbol of civilian deaths resulting from Israel’s retaliation against Hamas, which killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages in an October 7 cross-border raid.
- Abundant Supply Amid Shortages: Despite severe shortages of essentials like food, water, and medicine in Gaza, there is an abundant supply of these white coverings for the dead.
- Identification Challenges: In cases where the deceased cannot be immediately identified, the shrouds are marked “unknown male” or “unknown female.” Documentation efforts are made for later identification by relatives.
- Shroud Supply Issues: While the supply of white coverings, donated by Arab governments and charities, is expected to meet demand, challenges arise due to the high number of deaths and local shortages of materials needed for preparing the shrouds.
- Symbolic and Practical Aspects: The white shroud is not only a symbol of Gaza’s suffering but also reflects traditional Islamic burial practices, as advised by Prophet Muhammed.
- Shroud Preparation: The shrouds, usually accompanied by soap, perfume, cotton, and eucalyptus, are prepared for burial, highlighting the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
- Material and Color Preference: Shrouds are made from textile or nylon, with white being the traditional and preferred color.
- War-Time Burial Process: The process of obtaining and wrapping shrouds around bodies is described as extremely painful and distressing, especially amid the chaos and devastation of war.
- Personal Account: Journalist Abdel-Hamid Abdel-Atti shared his harrowing experience of wrapping his relatives, killed in an Israeli strike, in shrouds, reflecting on the peace and tradition associated with the white color and the profound grief of the situation.
The Associated Press has the story:
In Gaza, rows of White Shrouds symbolize mounting civilian deaths
Newslooks- GAZA, RAFA, CAIRO, Dec 29 (Reuters) –
“My life, my eyes, my soul,” a husband writes on the white shroud wrapped around his wife after the war devastating Gaza took her life. A bereaved son writes “my mother and everything” on the burial cloth covering his mother, another of the more than 21,000 Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas confrontation.
Over the past 12 weeks the piece of white cloth has become a symbol of civilian deaths wrought by Israel as it retaliates for Hamas killing 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages in its Oct. 7 cross-border raid, the deadliest day in Israel’s history.
While the besieged Palestinian territory faces severe shortages of food, water and medicine, the white coverings used to wrap dead Palestinians have remained in abundant supply.
Not all the shrouds bear loving words. Such is the war’s chaos, some of the dead cannot immediately be identified.
In such cases, the shrouds bear the words “unknown male” or “unknown female”, and before burial pictures are taken and the date and place of the strike documented so individuals can be identified by relatives later.
If the conflict escalates, the supply of the white coverings donated by Arab governments and charities is expected to keep pace with demand. But there are difficulties brought on by the sheer number of the dead, and sometimes there are gaps in the local availability of the shrouds.
“The challenges we face are too much, there is shortage in the knives and the scissors that we need to prepare the shrouds and cut them,” said Mohammed Abu Mussa, a volunteer at Keratan society, which prepares dead bodies for burial.
KNIVES, SCISSORS, COTTON
“As you know, there is a blockade and there are no materials in the Gaza Strip, so we find difficulties getting knives, scissors, and cotton,” he said, adding that so many people are dying that sometimes donated shrouds are not enough and he has to wrap four of five people in one shroud.
Marwan Al-Hams, director of Abu Yousef Al Najjar hospital, said the prevalence of the shrouds signifies Gaza’s suffering.
“The big number of the martyrs made the white shroud a symbol for this war and it became parallel to the Palestine flag in its influence and the knowledge of the world about the significance of our cause,” he said.
The white covering goes back to a narration by the Prophet Muhammed, who encouraged his followers to wear white clothes and also wrap the dead in white.
Shrouds from Arab donors come packed with a bar of soap, perfume, cotton, and eucalyptus, for the preparation of bodies for burial, a doctor at a hospital in the southern town of Rafah told Reuters.
A Gaza Health Ministry official told Reuters shrouds are manufactured either from textile or nylon material. While the nylon ones are made in both white and black, white is the traditional colour and is preferred.
In Gaza in normal times the minute someone dies, a relative goes to the market and buys a “Kafan”, or shroud.
SCENES OF CHAOS
But for Abdel-Hamid Abdel-Atti, a local journalist, the process in war-time Gaza began amid scenes of chaos and devastation, with bodies of six of his loved ones including his mother and brother being pulled from rubble.
The six were killed in an Israeli strike on Al-Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip on Dec. 7. The strike smashed a building on top of them as they slept.
Describing the procedure as the most painful experience of his life, he obtained shrouds from a hospital and wrapped them around his relatives’ bodies.
“The first one I did was my brother, the rest came wrapped in blankets and I asked they don’t be taken off, I put the shrouds over the blankets, and tied them carefully, before paying them farewell,” Abdel-Atti told Reuters.
“As I wrapped them in shrouds I wondered what was their fault … Why did Israel kill them as they slept in peace?”
The only consolation, he said, was his relatives are going to heaven. “White resembles peace, resembles calm. It is part of our tradition and belief and by white shrouds, it is as if we are asking God to remove and clear all their sins and accept them in heaven,” said Abdel-Atti.
Asked how much the risk of death preoccupied him, the journalist replied: “Each one of us is afraid. With nightfall, people feel as if they are in a closed cage and each awaits his or her turn to die.”
