West Bank Settlers Force Mohammed Asasa to Exhume Father's Body Near Jenin
Mohammed Asasa and his brothers were confronted by armed Jewish settlers at their father Hussein Asasa's fresh grave in the village of Asasa, near Jenin, shortly after his burial. The settlers, from the recently re-established Sa-Nur settlement, were actively digging at the grave and demanded the family exhume the body themselves or face the settlers doing it.
Mobile phone footage depicts family members re-excavating the grave as settlers, some armed with automatic rifles, supervised. The family then carried Hussein Asasa's shrouded body away from the cemetery.
The Israeli army stated it intervened to confiscate digging tools and prevent further "tension," yet the family accused soldiers of inaction while they were forced to empty the grave. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released a statement condemning actions that harm "public order, the rule of law, and the dignity of the living and the deceased."
The UN human rights office denounced the act as "appalling and emblematic of the dehumanisation of Palestinians," highlighting that it "spares no-one, dead or alive." Locals attribute increased community tensions to the re-establishment of the Sa-Nur settlement, which is illegal under international law.
The Netanyahu government's decision to permit the re-occupation and expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank has effectively rendered olive groves, fields, and even cemeteries inaccessible to their Palestinian owners. Human rights groups report a surge in settler violence across the West Bank, with armed settlers posing an increasing threat to Palestinian safety and livelihoods, often empowered by extremist elements within the Israeli government.
