“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 Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

Over the past 12 weeks the piece of white cloth has become a symbol of civilian deaths wrought by Israel.

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.

When the dead cannot be identified immediately, 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.

Read the full Reuters report here.