GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories – Even the dead are not spared by the Hamas-Israel war raging in Gaza, with bodies dug up by Israeli troops and hurried burials happening in hospitals and even a school.
In Gaza City’s Al-Tuffah district, shrouded corpses of Palestinians torn from their graves lay atop muddied earth.
Israel’s military had bulldozed the site and exhumed bodies, according to an AFP photographer who visited it earlier January.
The desecration is part of a pattern which the religious affairs ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip said has seen more than 2,000 graves damaged or destroyed by Israeli forces across the territory.
The Israeli military told AFP it “in no way targets cemeteries as such, and has no policy of harming or desecrating cemeteries”.
However, it said that “cemeteries or specific gravesites, like other civilian sites or structures, can come to be damaged” during the war.
Responding separately to allegations that soldiers have snatched bodies from graves, the military told AFP it acts “in the specific locations where information indicates that the bodies of hostages may be located”.
“Bodies determined not (to) be those of hostages are returned with dignity and respect,” it said in a statement.
The war erupted with the Oct 7 Hamas attack which resulted in about 1,140 deaths, mostly civilians, in southern Israel, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Militants also seized 250 hostages, of whom Israel says around 132 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28.
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email [email protected] Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
