Israel violates the sanctity of the dead by exhuming hundreds of graves in eastern Gaza

On Monday evening, Israeli media outlets published a photo taken by an Israeli army drone showing Israeli forces continuing to exhume graves in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood, east of Gaza City. This is part of an intensive search operation aimed at locating the body of Ran Gweili, the last Israeli captive held by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in an area known as the “Yellow Line.”

According to reports, the occupation forces are excavating the entire cemetery in the targeted area, using heavy engineering equipment, along with infantry and medical teams, in an attempt to identify and recover the remains. The extensive destruction caused by the war is further complicating the search operations.

Since the outbreak of the genocidal war in October 2013, the Gaza Strip has witnessed systematic exhumations of graves and theft of bodies in several areas. This constitutes a blatant violation of the sanctity of the dead and has exacerbated the suffering of families in burying their loved ones with dignity.

According to media reports and local sources, the Israeli occupation forces destroyed large sections of cemeteries in the Shuja’iyya and Beit Hanoun neighborhoods, as well as the temporary cemeteries in Beit Lahia and Al-Batsh. This resulted in extensive damage to graves, headstones, and cemetery property, in clear violation of international humanitarian law.

The Al-Tuffah cemetery, east of Gaza City, is one of the most prominent documented cases. The Government Media Office confirmed that the occupation forces used heavy machinery to exhume approximately 1,100 graves, removing the remains of martyrs and other deceased individuals. Around 150 bodies were then transferred to unknown locations, sparking widespread condemnation from Palestinian institutions and international human rights organizations.

This pattern of violations demonstrates the occupation’s practice of bulldozing the soil and removing bodies from their original burial sites. This has led to families losing the remains of their loved ones and the loss of necessary documentation and records of burials, as part of a continuous series of violations that have accompanied the war on the Gaza Strip.

Human rights experts consider the destruction of cemeteries and the desecration of graves during military operations to be grave violations that may amount to war crimes, especially in the absence of any legitimate military justification, and particularly when it concerns the graves of civilians.

International law emphasizes the need to protect religious and funerary sites from deliberate destruction, a principle that Israel clearly violated during its aggression against Gaza.