Jenin: Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank forced Palestinians to exhume the body of their father from his freshly dug village grave, near a settlement re-established by Israel.

Hussein Asasa, 80, died on Friday of natural causes and was buried that evening at the cemetery of Asasa village near Jenin, with all the necessary permits from Israel’s military, whose forces were at the site.

But shortly after the burial, the family was called back by some of the villagers, who said settlers were at the grave, ordering it be dug up.

“They said the land was for settlement and that burial was not allowed. We told them that this is the village’s cemetery, not part of the settlement,” said Muhammad, his son. The settlers then threatened to dig the grave up with a bulldozer, he said, so the family decided to exhume their father’s body themselves.

“We found that they already dug the grave and reached the body,” the son said. “We continued digging and got the body and buried him in another cemetery,” he said.

Video circulating on social media appeared to show settlers watching as people dig in the ground of a hill slope. They then carry away what looks like a body as Israeli troops walk behind them.

The Israeli military said that the funeral had been coordinated with it and that it had not instructed the family to rebury their father. Soldiers were sent to the scene following a report about a confrontation with settlers who were “digging in the area,” the military said. “The soldiers confiscated digging tools from the Israeli civilians and remained at the location in order to prevent further friction,” the military said.

“This is appalling and emblematic of the dehumanisation of Palestinians that we see unfolding across the Pccupied Palestinian Territories. It spares no one, dead or alive,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of the OHCHR Palestinian office.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2026