Why did Israel open dozens of graves in Gaza?

For days, complaints have been made about Israeli soldiers who allegedly “desecrated” dozens of graves in the Khan Younis area of ​​southern Gaza. Now confirmation has come from the IDF, that is, the Israel Defense Forces: The army has admitted that it acted in accordance with intelligence orders. Numerous videos posted on social media showed devastated cemeteries with badly damaged graves and human remains. So why did soldiers excavate cemeteries in Gaza and take away some bodies? According to the military, the aim of the operation was to locate Israeli hostages allegedly buried in cemeteries in the Strip.

Graves revealed in Gaza

After genetic analysis, the bodies were returned, but the behavior of Israeli soldiers leads to inevitable legal problems. Exposing graves in a cemetery could be considered a war crime if the area is not a legitimate military target. As confirmed by CNNAlthough rumors about this “practice” have been around for several months, this is the first time the Israeli military has admitted to exhuming bodies. Satellite images from January 15 show that the Khan Younis cemetery is still intact, indicating that the operation took place within the last few days.

A spoken IDF source CNN, confirmed the entire operation: “The process of identifying the hostages is being carried out in a safe and alternative location. Once it is determined that the body does not belong to an Israeli hostage, it is returned to the family in a respectful and dignified manner. In terms of intelligence or operational information, the IDF does not know for sure where the bodies of the hostages are believed to be located.” “conducts targeted rescue operations at designated locations.” “Such investigations,” the soldier added, “would have no reason to exist were it not for Hamas’ unfortunate decision to take Israeli men, women, children and newborns hostage.”

Meanwhile, the Israeli army announced that it killed Wael Abu-Fanounah, a senior member of Islamic Jihad and the deputy head of the organization’s psychological warfare operations, in a “targeted raid” in the south of the Strip. “Abu-Fanounah was responsible for publishing videos of rocket attacks on Israel and creating and distributing hostage documents as part of the psychological warfare waged against the Israeli public by terrorist organizations in Gaza,” a spokesman said.

Hamas hostage child Kfir turns one year old

While the conflicts continued at full speed, the first birthday of Israeli child Kfir Bibas, who was taken hostage by Hamas in the attack on October 7, was celebrated with various shows around the world. Hundreds of orange balloons flew into the sky from Tel Aviv to Rome in memory of the little boy’s hair color. Kfir is actually the youngest hostage held by Hamas; The youngest hostage to be kidnapped from kibbutz Nir Oz, along with her parents Shiri and Yarden and her four-year-old sister Ariel. There has been no news from them since the day of the abduction, it is not clear what their health condition is or whether they are alive or not.

In his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Israeli President Isaac Herzog showed a photo of the little boy describing “the world’s saddest birthday”. Instead, Kfir’s cousin, Yifat Zailer, was present at the demonstration in Tel Aviv and thanked everyone present and demanded the release of the hostages: “They must be released today and we cannot forget them for a moment. The sad faces are enough. Our children, our siblings, our parents.” , we must shout to the sky that our grandparents were there.” Hamas currently holds 136 Israeli hostages: 132 taken on October 7, four of whom have been there for years. According to the most widespread fears, at least 30 of them are no longer alive.