Even the dead were not spared': Israeli's Gaza desecration compounds grief

"Fatima Abdullah cannot erase the painful images from al-Batsh cemetery, which was excavated and desecrated this week by the Israeli military in the Tuffah neighbourhood east of Gaza City, as the army recovered the last captive's body. The cemetery contains the grave of her husband, who was killed during Israel's genocidal war on Gaza, alongside thousands of other graves belonging to families across the devastated territory."

"Fatima, a mother of three, has told Al Jazeera of the unbearable tension she felt knowing that the Israeli military's search operations were focused on that cemetery. We were all on edge we knew the operation was at al-Batsh cemetery, and everyone was scared it would be their loved one's grave next. I imagined the machinery approaching my husband's grave, and I said, No, God.' Fatima's husband, Mohammad al-Shaarawi, was killed in an Israeli drone strike on December 11, 2024."

"Even the dead were not spared, Fatima says, describing a violation of the last remnants of their right to mourn and preserve dignity. Corpses scattered, bones, bags thrown they were bulldozing graves, dumping the remains as if they were nothing. During the search and recovery of captive Israeli policeman Ran Gvili, about 250 graves were examined in a short period using heavy military machinery and bulldozers."

The Israeli military excavated and desecrated al-Batsh cemetery in Tuffah, east of Gaza City, while recovering the last captive's body, examining at least 250 graves. Bulldozers and heavy machinery exhumed old and recent graves, destroyed tombstones, scattered corpses and bones, and dumped remains, significantly altering the cemetery landscape. Families across Gaza were left devastated and uncertain about the fate of buried loved ones. Fatima Abdullah described fearing for her husband Mohammad al-Shaarawi's grave after his death in a December 11, 2024 drone strike. Aerial images documented widespread damage during the search and recovery of captive Israeli policeman Ran Gvili.

Read at www.aljazeera.com