Team at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital do what they can to provide last rites to those killed in Israeli attacks.

Deir el-Balah – Dozens of bodies, wrapped in improvised white cloths that double as shrouds, lie together in a newly dug mass grave.

They are the unidentified Palestinians who were killed in Israeli attacks, their bodies are either charred beyond recognition or torn apart, to the point where the burial supervisors are sometimes not completely sure if they got the whole person.

But the team at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital does its best to offer the proper Islamic burial rituals to the remains, hoping that their efforts will allow the deceased victims to rest.

Yasser Abu Ammar, who supervises the ritual washing of the dead at the hospital, told Al Jazeera: “About 80 percent of the bodies we receive are torn apart. We’re burying torn-apart limbs, and some bodies have their organs lacerated and exposed.

“We’ve never seen anything like this, like these puzzling wounds inflicted on these mangled body parts.”

Abu Ammar added that he had supervised the burial of body parts belonging to a six-member family in one shroud.

“All of them barely made up one complete body,” he said.

Mohammed al-Hajj, hospital spokesperson, said about 150 unknown bodies have been buried so far, documented by a committee of police and health officials.

The bodies are numbered and photographed for the record.

“We also include information about the Israeli bombing that hit them, the date and place of the attack and the timing,” al-Hajj said. “We also record the names of the wounded and identified deceased people who arrived at the hospital at the same time.”

“It’s very hard to identify these bodies,” Abu Ammar said. “Family members resort to scrutinising body parts to catch a scar or a mole or even the burned remains of clothes that will help them identify their loved ones, but most of them can’t.”

In all his years of washing and burying bodies, he said, the first time he encountered unknown bodies was during this, the current Israeli offensive on Gaza.

“When I’m at home, my brain plays the tape of everything I saw that day … in detail. I can’t stop it. I’ve had the most terrible nightmares about these bodies.”

“This is the most harrowing thing I’ve ever been through.”

Photographs are helpful if relatives come to the hospital inquiring about their loved ones, but Abu Ammar says that in most cases, the victims’ skulls are shattered and their faces burned beyond recognition.

“These bodies were human beings … had dignity,” he said. “To see their bodies reduced to burned remains or chopped pieces is unbearable.”

Torn remains, burned beyond recognition: Burying Gaza's unknown bodies
Officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital say they have buried 150 unidentified bodies in Deir el-Balah since the start of the Israeli offensive on October 7. [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
Torn remains, burned beyond recognition: Burying Gaza's unknown bodies
The bodies, mostly dismembered, are first wrapped in a plastic sheet in order not to stain the ritual white ‘shroud’ before burial. [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
Torn remains, burned beyond recognition: Burying Gaza's unknown bodies
A committee of police and health officials oversee the burial and document as much information regarding the circumstances of the victims’ killing. [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
Torn remains, burned beyond recognition: Burying Gaza's unknown bodies
It is very difficult for families to identify the remains sometimes. They may have to rely on scrutinising body parts for a mole or other identifying feature. [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
Torn remains, burned beyond recognition: Burying Gaza's unknown bodies
The victims’ bodies are documented by marking them with numbers and photographing them. [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
Torn remains, burned beyond recognition: Burying Gaza's unknown bodies
According to Yasser Abu Ammar, who oversees the ritual washing of the dead at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, about 80 percent of the unknown bodies buried are dismembered or incomplete. [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
Torn remains, burned beyond recognition: Burying Gaza's unknown bodies
‘This is the most harrowing thing I’ve ever been through,’ Abu Ammar told Al Jazeera. [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]
Torn remains, burned beyond recognition: Burying Gaza's unknown bodies
Israel has killed more than 14,000 Palestinians since October 7, the vast majority of them women and children. [Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera]