Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank forced a Palestinian family to exhume the body of their 85-year-old father, Hussein Asasa, on Friday after digging up his grave in the village cemetery south of Jenin. The family had buried Asasa earlier that day with prior coordination and approval from the Israeli military, which had granted them 30 minutes to complete the burial. Video footage from the scene shows settlers, armed with spades and weapons, standing near the open grave as family members hastily removed the body wrapped in a white shroud. Mohammed Asasa, the son, said the settlers issued an ultimatum: "Either you take the dead body away right now or we'll use a bulldozer to remove him from the grave and dump him for you." The cemetery, used by the Asasa family for generations, is now located about 300 meters from the newly reestablished Israeli settlement of Sa-Nur, returned under a decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government in 2023. Since the settlement's reoccupation, the family has been required to obtain military permits to access the burial site. Israeli soldiers were present during the exhumation but did not stop the settlers from interfering. The Israeli military confirmed it confiscated digging tools and remained at the site to "prevent further friction," while condemning actions that violate the "dignity of the living and the deceased." It did not explain why its forces failed to intervene to protect the burial despite the family's compliance with permit requirements. Ajith Sunghay, head of the United Nations Human Rights Office for the occupied Palestinian territory, described the incident as a "despicable" act and a symptom of the Israeli military's "constant failure" to uphold its legal obligations to protect Palestinians. The event follows a marked rise in settler violence against Palestinians since the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023, with little accountability for perpetrators.
A state-sanctioned burial was overturned by armed settlers while Israeli soldiers stood by, raising questions about whose rights the military actually enforces in the occupied West Bank. The Asasa family followed all required procedures, yet their dead were not spared. If permits mean nothing when settlers decide otherwise, then the system is designed to fail Palestinians. The military's presence without intervention signals approval, not neutrality.
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