Gaza blockade creates new hurdles for gravediggers

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Even dying in Gaza is more complicated these days.

With no cement in stock due to Israel's border blockade, some gravediggers in Gaza have been chipping off pieces of marble staircases and ripping up parts of the sidewalk to buttress burial sites and keep animals out.

The Jewish state largely closed Gaza's borders to all but humanitarian aid in June after Hamas Islamists seized control of the coastal strip. On Friday it tightened the blockade in a move it said was meant to stop militants firing rockets onto its towns.

On Monday, a spokesman said Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak had agreed to allow fuel for the Gaza Strip's power plant as well as medical supplies into the territory starting on Tuesday.

Virtually no cement has been allowed in since June. One 50 kg (110 lb) sack costs as much as a whole tonne would have fetched before the blockade.

"We are buying bricks and marble stairs to prepare the graves -- you cannot leave a grave open, people want to give their dead a respected burial," said 19-year-old undertaker Salem Abu Ghadayeen.

GRAVEDIGGERS BUSY

Israel has also stepped up a military offensive against militants who fire rockets into border towns, and has killed some 40 Palestinians in the past week.

Gaza's gravediggers have been busy.

Abu Ghadayeen and his older brothers bury the dead at one of Gaza City's main cemeteries, which serves most of the city's 600,000 people. Sometimes they buy bricks or pieces of marble staircases from Gaza residents keen to make extra cash.

Sometimes they yank up parts of the sidewalk, or nail down wooden and metal boards as a stop-gap measure until cement supplies start flowing.

The price of a decent grave has shot up to 700 Israeli shekel ($184), from 400 shekels before June.

Mourners are resorting to wrapping corpses in shrouds made of polyester instead of cotton, which is in short supply due to restrictions on imports.

The move contravenes Islamic law, which says corpses must be wrapped in cotton because it disintegrates along with the body, but one Muslim cleric in Gaza said exceptions were being made.

"In Gaza we are living an exceptional situation. The religion allows people to do what is necessary when what is religiously demanded is unavailable," said Hassan al-Jojo, a senior Gaza judge told Reuters.