No respite for the dead in Gaza

By Hatem Khaled

GAZA (Reuters) -In war-ravaged Gaza, even the dead cannot rest.

Residents of the southern city of Khan Younis said Israeli soldiers have dug up graves on several occasions at the Bani Suhaila cemetery in the Palestinian enclave. 

Bilal Al-Qahwaji buried several members of his family, including two brothers, there in November after they were killed in an Israeli air strike. He can no longer find their bodies.

"They (Israeli forces) dug it up once again – a first, second and third time," he said.

“There are no corpses. My martyrs are all in this area and I didn't find them,” Qahwaji added, referring to his dead relatives.

The Israeli military said in a statement that it should be clear that it "in no way targets cemeteries as such, and has no policy of harming or desecrating cemeteries".

"During a war in which Hamas purposely embeds itself deeply within the civilian population, including within and adjacent to civilian sites like cemeteries, physical damage to such sites might occur," it added.

Israel's military has previously said it dug in Bani Suhaila to find and destroy a tunnel it says the Islamist group Hamas built to house a military command centre, a use it argued deprived the site of international legal protection.

The International Criminal Court's founding Rome Statute defines the desecration of dead bodies as a war crime.

Israeli air strikes have made major cemeteries in Gaza dangerous to reach, so mourning families are burying their dead in informal graveyards dug in empty lots amid an intensifying siege.

Israel has killed over 39,000 people in Gaza and reduced much of the small enclave to rubble since Hamas attacked the country on Oct. 7, according to local health authorities.

Many Palestinians have fled up and down Gaza seeking a safe place to shelter. Ten months into the conflict, the cemetery in Khan Younis has suffered damage several times in Israeli air strikes and during ground operations there, residents say.

With hospital morgues also filled with the bodies constantly arriving from bomb sites, families must find other places to bury their dead.

Israel launched its war in Gaza after militants from the Hamas Islamist group that ran the enclave burst across the border fence killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.  

"All this destruction, every day we are out on the streets. Shame on you, our children have been martyred," said Ahlam Farhan, a Gaza resident whose son was killed in the war.

"The dead were not spared from the Jews (Israelis). Where should we go? Tell us."

The destruction of grave sites comes as Palestinians face shortages of food, fuel, water, medicine and functioning hospitals. Mediators from Qatar, the U.S. and Egypt have failed to secure a ceasefire, so the death toll is expected to keep rising.

Qahwaji said the United Nations and other international organizations should help return the bodies of those who were buried in the cemetery.

But for now, Palestinians have to deal with the ruins and remains on their own, as members of the Khan Younis Civil Defence zip body bags on the ground and carry them onto trucks. 

“This is a war crime in itself, to dig up graves that are more than 50 years old,” said Yamen Abu Suleiman, its director.

On May 20, the International Criminal Court prosecutor's office requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his defence chief Yoav Gallant, and for three Hamas leaders for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza war.

As the living grapple with a humanitarian crisis and air strikes, some Palestinians ask why the dead were disturbed.

“Were they taking revenge on the dead in their graves, by digging them up and taking them out into the open?” Abu Suleiman asked.

(Writing by Catherine Cartier, Editing by Michael Georgy, William Maclean)