Israel forces Palestinian family in Jenin area to exhume their son's grave, move body

The Israeli army forced a Palestinian family to exhume their son's grave late Friday and move his body in the northern occupied West Bank.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa quoted local sources who said, "Israeli forces forced a Palestinian family in Jenin to exhume their son's body and move it to another location, claiming the cemetery was too close to an Israeli settlement."

Sources added that "occupiers had begun digging up the grave of a person who had been buried earlier today in the cemetery of the village of Asasa in preparation for exhuming his body."

The Israeli army arrived later and forced the family to exhume the body, move it, and rebury it in another location, claiming that the cemetery is too close to Tarsala, also known as the former settlement of Sanur, near the town of Jaba', in southern Jenin.

Wafa reported that Israeli authorities returned occupiers to the settlement built on land belonging to the town of Jaba' in April, 20 years after its evacuation in 2005.

Under former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and following a series of military losses, Israel withdrew from settlements in the Gaza Strip and other settlements in the West Bank, including Sanur, in 2005, as part of a unilateral plan known at the time as the "disengagement plan."

Wafa added that since then, occupiers and the Israeli army have been repeatedly raiding the towns of Jaba' and Silat ad-Dhahr in the Jenin governorate, carrying out attacks against the residents.

It also noted that the Israeli army issued demolition orders to several shops on the Jenin-Nablus road, owned by residents of Jaba', claiming they are too close to the settlement.

On April 29, Israeli authorities approved the construction of 126 illegal settlement units in Jenin.

The occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has seen a surge in Israeli military operations, including raids, arrests, shootings and excessive use of force, alongside rising attacks by the occupiers on Palestinians and their property.

Attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers have killed at least 1,155 Palestinians, wounded about 11,750, and led to the arrest of nearly 22,000 since October 2023, according to official Palestinian figures.