On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called it an “extraordinary success”. Israeli forces recovered the body of Ran Gwili, an Israeli man who died on October 7, 2023, from a Palestinian cemetery in northern Gaza. Israeli TV showed Israeli soldiers singing a Hebrew song at the scene. Western media highlighted the importance of the operation and “A moment of national healing“
Here in Gaza, the Israeli operation to remove the bodies has spread fear, pain and death. Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians near the cemetery and desecrated hundreds of Palestinian graves. Hundreds of Palestinian families will now have to find and collect the remains of their loved ones, and four families will have to dig new graves.
What was presented to the rest of the world as a “standard military operation”, was in reality a serious crime under international law. Grave desecration is a violation of a key provision of the Geneva Convention, which states that dead bodies and graves must be respected.
In the Palestinian context, attacks on cemeteries are another form of collective punishment. It sends a clear message: Palestinians will be denied dignity even after death.
Of course, this is not the first time that Israel has committed crimes against the Palestinian dead.
Throughout the war, Israel has been attacking, bulldozing, and digging up cemeteries in the Gaza Strip. As of January 2024, CNN reported that at least 16 Palestinian cemeteries in Gaza had been desecrated. Israel justified its actions by claiming that Hamas was using the cemeteries for “military purposes”. Satellite imagery and footage showed that entire cemeteries were leveled, with Israeli forces converting some into military positions.
However, the desecration of Palestinian cemeteries by military necessity alone does not add up. Palestinian burial sites in the occupied West Bank are also regularly attacked. Israeli citizens earlier this month storm Destroyed Muslim cemeteries and tombs in Jerusalem. In January 2023, A Christian CemeteryIt was also defaced in Jerusalem, where many senior Christian leaders were buried.
And it’s not just a resting place for the dead that Israel is destroying. Palestinian bodies themselves are also targets. Last year the Israeli army was sent Hundreds of dead bodies From the Palestinians to Gaza. Many of them bore obvious marks of abuse; Others were so mutilated they were unrecognizable, forcing local authorities to bury them in mass graves.
In other cases, there are Israeli authorities withheld Palestinian corpses are another form of collective punishment by their families. Currently, Israel holds the bodies of Palestinians who died in the 1967 war. In 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court officially allowed the Israeli state to “retain corpses for this purpose.negotiation“
All of this – the desecration, exhumation, mutilation, barring of dead Palestinians and its legalization – is meant to erase the memory of the dead and prevent their loved ones from mourning and closure. intended to punish; It is meant to offend. Even after death, Palestinians cannot find security and peace.
All these crimes against the Palestinian dead have not received much media attention for the burial of dead Israeli prisoners released from Gaza. Stories of humanity, elaborate photoshoots, reports of official ceremonies were not afforded to Palestinian victims, whose bodies have been exhumed by Israel.
There were no reports of Palestinian families who went to cemeteries and had the horrifying experience of seeing the remains of their loved ones scattered. There was no global sympathy for their suffering and pain.
By now, we have seen and experienced all kinds of unimaginable crimes committed by Israel. They are made so bad that there is global silence about them.
It is sad that we have to remind the world that graves are sacred and protected places under international law, including the Palestinians.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.