GAZA, (PIC)
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) have desecrated at least 16 cemeteries in their ground aggression on Gaza, a CNN investigation has found.
CNN has reviewed satellite imagery and social media footage showing the destruction of at least 16 cemeteries in the Gaza Strip since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7.
The news network said that “the intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, violates international law, except in narrow circumstances relating to that site becoming a military objective,” and quoted legal experts as saying, “Israel’s actions could amount to war crimes.”
A spokesman for the Israeli occupation army could not account for the destruction of the 16 cemeteries CNN provided coordinates for.
The CNN’s analysis of satellite imagery and videos showed that Israeli bulldozers turned multiple cemeteries into gathering areas for the IOF, leveled large areas and erected berms to fortify its positions.
Israeli bulldozers were seen leveling the graves of Palestinian martyrs and exhuming graves to extract the bodies and steal some of them under the pretext of searching for the bodies of Israeli captives who may have been killed during the war.
In response to an Anadolu agency correspondent’s question about the issue, the Israeli occupation army acknowledged in a written statement on Friday that its forces have severely damaged a cemetery in Khan Younis in southern Gaza earlier this week, exhuming bodies of martyrs as part of a search for the remains of captives seized by Hamas.
The Israeli army confirmed, however, that it turned out that the bodies in the graves “were not bodies of Israeli captives,” claiming that “they were respectfully returned to the graves.”
The withdrawal of the Israeli military vehicles from the vicinity of the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, demonstrated that the army destroyed a cemetery in the city and exhumed a number of graves in it.
The Palestinians collected decomposed bodies of martyrs which were removed from graves in bulldozing operations, according to the Anadolu agency correspondent.
