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On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed it as an “extraordinary achievement.” The Israeli military recovered the body of Ran Gviri, an Israeli man who died on October 7, 2023, from a Palestinian cemetery in northern Gaza. Israeli television showed Israeli soldiers singing Hebrew songs at the scene. Western media talked about the importance of the surgery and this “moment of national healing.”
Here in Gaza, Israeli operations to recover bodies have caused fear, suffering and death. Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinians near the cemetery and desecrated hundreds of Palestinian graves. Hundreds of Palestinian families now have to find and collect the remains of their loved ones, and four families have had to dig new graves.
What was presented to the world as a “standard military operation” was in fact a serious crime under international law. Desecration of graves violates a key article of the Geneva Conventions, which states that dead bodies and graves must be respected.
In the Palestinian context, attacks on cemeteries are yet another form of collective punishment. It sends a clear message that Palestinians are denied dignity even in death.
Of course, this is not the first time Israel has committed crimes against dead Palestinians.
During the war, Israel has attacked, bulldozed and dug up graves throughout the Gaza Strip. CNN reported that by January 2024, at least 16 Palestinian cemeteries in Gaza had been desecrated. Israel justified its action by claiming that Hamas was using the cemetery for “military purposes.” Satellite images and footage showed that the entire cemetery had been destroyed and that Israeli forces had converted some parts into military positions.
However, the excuse that Palestinian cemeteries are only desecrated for military necessity does not work. Palestinian burial sites in the occupied West Bank are also regularly attacked. Just earlier this month, Israeli civilians attacked a Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem and destroyed the graves. In January 2023, a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem where many Christian leaders are buried was desecrated.
And it’s not just the resting places of the dead that Israel is destroying. Palestinian corpses themselves are also targeted. Last year, the Israeli military sent hundreds of Palestinian bodies to Gaza. Many of them had obvious signs of torture. Others were mutilated beyond recognition, forcing local authorities to bury them in mass graves.
In other cases, Israeli authorities did not separate Palestinian bodies from their families, as yet another form of collective punishment. Currently, Israel stores the bodies of Palestinians killed dating back to the 1967 war. In 2019, Israel’s Supreme Court formally recognized the state of Israel’s ability to convene bodies for the purpose of “negotiations.”
Desecration, exhumation, mutilation, the withholding of dead Palestinians and their legitimation: all these are aimed at erasing the memory of the deceased and preventing their loved ones from mourning and closing down on them. It is intended to punish. It means humiliation. Even if they die, Palestinians will not have security and peace.
All these crimes against the Palestinian dead have received no more media attention than the burial of the dead Israeli prisoners released from Gaza. Humanizing stories, extensive photography, and coverage of official ceremonies were denied to the Palestinian victims whose bodies Israel exhumed and desecrated.
There were no reports of Palestinian families who went to cemeteries and experienced horror as they saw the remains of their loved ones’ graves strewn about. There was no universal sympathy for their suffering and pain.
Until now, we have seen and experienced all kinds of unimaginable crimes committed by Israel. What has made matters worse for them is the global silence towards them.
It is a tragedy that we have to remind the world that graves, including those in Palestine, are sacred and protected places under international law.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
