On Wednesday, January 17, 2024, the Israeli army destroyed a cemetery in the Austrian neighborhood, in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, before its vehicles withdrew from it.

Local sources confirmed the withdrawal of the Israeli forces penetrating the vicinity of the Nasser Medical Complex, after bulldozing and sabotage operations in the Al-Nasmawi cemetery.

Video clips on social media showed scenes of the Israeli army exhuming the cemetery in the Austrian neighborhood, west of Khan Yunis, and stealing a number of bodies.

This is not the first incident by theIsraeli forces, as this was preceded by the exhumation of graves and the theft of bodies in Gaza City and its north, during the ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip, since October 7, 2023.

On January 8, 2024, a video clip was circulated documenting the Israeli forces’ destruction of the Al-Zalal Mosque, which is located next to the Bani Suhaila cemetery. The clip also shows the major demolition operations that the cemetery was subjected to.

On January 6, 2024, the Israeli army exhumed approximately 1,100 graves in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood cemetery, east of Gaza, and stole 150 bodies from them.

The Israeli mechanisms also trampled the bodies of the dead, and insulted their dignity, without any regard for the sanctity of the dead or the graves, according to what the Government Information Office in Gaza reported.

On December 27, 2023, the occupation returned the bodies of about 80 Palestinians to the Gaza Strip, and the government media office said in a statement: “After examining the bodies, it became clear that the features of the dead had changed greatly, in a clear indication that Israel had stolen vital organs from the bodies of these martyrs.” 

“The occupation also handed over unidentified bodies, refused to specify the names of these dead, and refused to specify the places from which they had stolen them,” according to the statement.

According to a previous analysis by the New York Times of satellite images and videos, Israel destroyed or damaged at least 6 cemeteries during its advance into the northern Gaza Strip.