- Darvish tames Ohtani as Padres thrash Dodgers
- Asian markets track Wall St rally on jobs data
- Family affair as LeBron, Bronny James make Lakers bow
- Cancer, cardiovascular drugs tipped for Nobel as prize week opens
- As Great Salt Lake dries, Utah Republicans pardon Trump climate skepticism
- Amazon activist warns of 'critical situation' ahead of UN forum
- Mourners pay tribute to latest victims of deadly Channel crossing
- Tunisia incumbent Saied set to win presidential vote: exit polls
- Phillies win thriller to level Mets series
- Yu bags first PGA Tour win with playoff win
- PSG held by Nice to leave Monaco clear at top of Ligue 1
- AC Milan fall at Fiorentina after De Gea's penalty heroics
- Lewandowski treble for leaders Barca as Atletico held
- Fresh Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
- Sucic stunner earns Real Sociedad draw against Atletico
- PSG draw with Nice, fail to reclaim top spot in Ligue 1
- Gudmundsson downs AC Milan after De Gea's penalty heroics for Fiorentina
- 'Yes' vote prevails in Kazakhstan nuclear plant vote: TV
- 'Difficult day': Oct 7 commemorations begin with festival memorial
- Commemorations begin for anniversary of attack on Israel
- Lewandowski hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- 'Nothing gets in way of team,' says Celtics' MVP hopeful Tatum
- India maintain Pakistan stranglehold as Windies cruise at Women's T20 World Cup
- 'We will win!': Mozambique's ruling party confident at final vote rally
- Tunisia voting ends as Saied eyes re-election with critics behind bars
- Florida braces for Milton, FEMA head slams 'dangerous' Helene misinformation
- Postecoglou slams 'unacceptable' Spurs after 'terrible' loss at Brighton
- Marmoush double denies Bayern outright Bundesliga top spot
- Rallies worldwide call for Gaza, Lebanon ceasefire
- Maresca hails Chelsea's 'fighting' spirit after draw with 10-man Forest
- New 'Joker' film, a dark musical, tops N.America box office
- Man Utd stalemate keeps Ten Hag in danger, Spurs rocked by Brighton
- Drowned by hurricane, remote N.Carolina towns now struggle for water
- Vikings hold off Jets in London to stay unbeaten
- Ahead of attack anniversary, Netanyahu says: 'We will win'
- West Indies cruise to T20 World Cup win over Scotland
- Arshdeep, Chakravarthy help India hammer Bangladesh in T20 opener
- Lewandowski's quickfire hat-trick powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Man Utd fire another blank in Aston Villa stalemate
- Lewandowski treble powers Liga leaders Barca to Alaves victory
- Russian activist killed on front line in Ukraine
- Openda strike briefly sends Leipzig top of Bundesliga
- Goal-shy Man Utd have to 'step up', says Ten Hag
- India bowl out Bangladesh for 127 in T20 opener
- Madueke rescues Chelsea in draw with 10-man Forest
- Beckett's belief rewarded as Bluestocking storms to Arc glory
- Trump on the stump, Harris hits airwaves in razor-edge US election
- Flash flooding kills three in northern Thailand
- Kaur leads India to victory over Pakistan in Women's T20 World Cup
- Juventus held by Cagliari after late penalty drama
Gaza's overwhelmed undertakers stack 'graves on top of graves'
Undertakers are working like bricklayers in a Gaza cemetery, piling cinder blocks into tight rectangles, side by side, for freshly dug graves.
More than 10 months into the Gaza war, so many bodies are arriving at the cemetery in Deir el-Balah that the men, working in the hot sun, hardly have space to bury them.
"The cemetery is so full that we now dig graves on top of other graves, we've piled the dead in levels," says Saadi Hassan Barakeh, leading his team of gravediggers.
Barakeh, 63, has been burying the dead for 28 years. In "all the wars in Gaza", he says he has "never seen this".
Previously, Barakeh also oversaw burials at the nearby Ansar cemetery, which covers 3.5 hectares (8.6 acres).
But now "the Ansar cemetery is completely full. There were too many dead", he says, his clothes smeared in dirt from digging graves.
He now handles just the Al-Soueid cemetery, with its 5.5 hectares of graves. Yet even with one cemetery instead of two, he works "every day, from six in the morning to six in the evening".
"Before the war, we had one or two funerals per week, maximum five," he says, wearing a white prayer cap that matches his long beard.
"Now, there are weeks when I bury 200 to 300 people. It's unbelievable."
- 'I can't sleep' -
Gaza's death toll of just over 40,000 in more than 10 months of war, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry, is straining its people as well as its cemeteries.
Barakeh bears daily witness to the tragedies. Hoe in hand, he gives encouragement to his 12 workers as they prepare and close dozens of graves every day.
At night, however, some images are hard to forget.
"I can't sleep after seeing so many mangled children's bodies and dead women," he said, adding: "I buried 47 women from one family."
The October 7 Hamas attack which triggered the war resulted in the deaths of 1,198 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Militants also seized 251 people, 111 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 39 the military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has killed at least 40,005 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry, which does not provide a breakdown of civilian and militant deaths.
"I buried a lot of women and children, and only two or three guys from Hamas," says Barakeh.
- 'Why the children?' -
If Israelis "have a problem with (Yahya) Sinwar, why do they harm children?" he adds, referring to the alleged October 7 attacks mastermind who is now Hamas's overall leader.
"Let them kill Sinwar and all the others, but why the women and children?"
Mounds of freshly dug soil are reminders of recent burials. Graves with white headstones fill nearly all the available space, while men dig new holes in the few vacant areas.
The team forms a human chain to carry the cinder blocks, whose price has soared since Gaza's factories closed due to a lack of fuel and raw materials.
"One shekel ($0.27) before the war, 10 or 12 today," he lamented.
Besides gravediggers and the workers carrying cinder blocks, hardly anyone comes to funerals anymore, Barakeh says.
"Before the war, there were sometimes 1,000 people at one funeral; today there are days when we bury 100 people and there aren't even 20 to lay them to rest."
High above his head, the constant hum of an Israeli surveillance drone serves as a reminder of the aerial threat creating a steady stream of bodies.
Y.Kobayashi--AMWN