Gaza struggles to accommodate the living and the dead as the population grows by Mohammed Salem

While the authorities grapple with a growing demand for new housing in the densely populated Gaza Strip, a battle for space is pitting the living against the dead, as homeless squatters settle in the area’s cemeteries.

The pressure on space in the cemeteries reflects a mounting demographic crisis in Gaza, where the population is set to more than double within the next 30 years. Land is running out and competition for scarce Gaza real estate is understandably fierce, with an ever-increasing demand for both housing and farming land to help feed the growing population. Now, even the dead are affected, as their resting places are pressured by squatters and the relentless realities of a growing population with nowhere else to go.