The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip has reported that the Israeli Occupation Forces have exhumed approximately 1100 graves in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood cemetery, east of Gaza, stealing 150 bodies in the process.
In a statement released today, the office detailed a "new crime to add to the series of crimes committed by the occupation during its genocidal war waged against the Palestinian people." It elaborated that the occupation forces have dug up nearly 1100 graves at the cemetery in the Al-Tuffah area, using heavy machinery to desecrate and remove the remains of martyrs and other deceased individuals, trampling upon them and defiling their dignity without any regard for the sanctity of the deceased or the gravesites.
The media office highlighted that this atrocity has been repeated multiple times, with the most recent instance involving the return of 80 bodies of former martyrs. These bodies had been stolen from the Gaza and North Gaza governorates, tampered with, and then handed back in a disfigured state. The remains were reburied in Rafah.
Images broadcasted by Al Jazeera show the desecration left behind by the occupation forces at the Al-Tuffah cemetery in Gaza City. The photographs depict military machinery bulldozing the burial ground and exhuming the graves and bodies.
Al Jazeera’s correspondent reported that the occupation forces bulldozed the cemetery, leaving the bodies of martyrs exposed, in addition to crushing them with their machinery and leaving them out of their graves.
Eyewitnesses have stated that the number of bodies mistreated and removed from their graves is significantly high, affirming that even the dead have not been spared from the brutality of the occupation forces. Meanwhile, several residents have taken it upon themselves to rebury the bodies in their graves.
Since the beginning of the ground operation in the sector, Israeli Occupation Forces have deliberately bulldozed cemeteries of Palestinian martyrs in the Gaza Strip. They have excavated graves to remove the remains and later stolen some of the bodies.
