ANKARA - The Israeli military has destroyed at least 16 cemeteries in Gaza, reported Anadolu Agency.
According to CNN in a report over the weekend, citing satellite imagery and social media footage, the army demolished the graveyards during its ground operation using bulldozers and even extracted some bodies from graves.
Legal experts quoted in the report emphasised that deliberately destroying religious sites like cemeteries and turning them into military targets violates international law, suggesting that Israel's actions could be considered war crimes.
Based on its analysis of the satellite images and videos, CNN said that in other cases, the army appears to have used cemeteries as military outposts, with bulldozers turning several graveyards into staging grounds.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed to CNN that they had dug up some graves in Gaza, claiming it was done to determine whether Israeli hostages seized during the Oct 7 cross-border operation by Hamas were buried there.
The Israeli military also confirmed to Anadolu that they opened some graves in Gaza to extract bodies.
Israel launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct 7, killing at least 25,105 Palestinians and injuring 62,681.
The Israeli offensive has left 85 per cent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60 per cent of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the United Nations. - BERNAMA