Arabic version: المستوطنون يجبرون عائلة فلسطينية على نقل رفات والدهم

A Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank has been forced by Israeli settlers, reportedly under military protection, to dig up their father’s grave and rebury him, which the United Nations is condemning as “appalling and dehumanising.” Eighty-year-old Hussein Asasa died of natural causes on Friday and was buried shortly after in a cemetery in Asasa village near Jenin.

According to Al Jazeera, his son, Mohammed, said the burial had been coordinated in advance with Israeli security forces, which provided all necessary permits. However, shortly after the burial, settlers threatened the Asasa family, ordering them to exhume the body, claiming it had been buried on land that formed part of an Israeli settlement.

The family was left with no choice but to comply with the settlers’ demands after they threatened to use a bulldozer to exhume the body themselves. Mohammed Asasa noted that the settlers had already begun digging and reached the body. Following the confrontation, the family was pressured to bury their loved one elsewhere.

The Israeli military has denied giving reburial instructions to the family, saying soldiers were sent to the area after receiving reports of a confrontation involving settlers. The military said soldiers confiscated digging tools from the settlers and remained at the scene to “prevent further friction.” The UN Human Rights Office condemned what happened, stating, “This is appalling and emblematic of the dehumanisation of Palestinians that we see unfolding across the OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories). It spares no one, dead or alive.”

This incident comes as attacks by settlers have surged since Israel launched its military actions in Gaza in October 2023, with reports of assaults on civilians and property throughout the West Bank.