Israeli settlers stand next to Israeli soldiers during a weekly settlers' tour of the Israeli-occupied city of Hebron in the West Bank, Palestine, on May 9, 2026. (Credit: Mussa Qawasma/Reuters)
Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank forced Palestinians to exhume their father’s body from his freshly dug grave in the village, according to the family, near a settlement reestablished by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Hussein Assassa, 80, died Friday of natural causes and was buried in the evening in the village cemetery of Assassa, near Jenin, with all permits required by the Israeli military, whose forces intervened at the scene, his son Mohammed said. But soon after the burial, the family was called back by villagers who reported that settlers were at the grave, ordering it be dug up.
“They said the land was reserved for settlement and burial was forbidden. We told them this was the village cemetery, not part of the settlement,” the son said. The settlers then threatened to dig up the grave with a bulldozer, he recounted, which prompted the family to exhume their father's body themselves. “We found that they had already dug up the grave and reached the body,” Assassa said. “We continued the exhumation, recovered the body, and buried it in another cemetery,” he continued.
Video shows people removing a body
A video circulating on social media appears to show settlers observing as people dig on a slope. They then carry away what appears to be a body, with Israeli soldiers walking behind them. Reuters geolocated the scene to Assassa.
The Israeli army said the funeral had been coordinated with it and that it had not requested the family to rebury the father. Soldiers were sent to the site after a report of a confrontation with settlers “digging in the area,” according to the army. “The soldiers confiscated digging tools from the Israeli civilians and remained on site to prevent further incidents,” it said. The military added it condemns acts that undermine “the dignity of the living and the dead.”
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) condemned the incident. “It is revolting and emblematic of the dehumanization of Palestinians that we are witnessing across the occupied Palestinian territories. It spares no one, neither dead nor alive,” said Ajith Sunghay, head of OHCHR’s office in Palestine.
Reuters was unable to reach settlers from the nearby settlement of Sa-Nur for comment. Sa-Nur was among 19 settlements evacuated as part of Israel’s 2005 disengagement plan, which also included the withdrawal of settlers and Israeli troops from Gaza. The Netanyahu government approved the reestablishment of Sa-Nur a year ago, and construction has progressed rapidly, according to Peace Now, an Israeli settlement watchdog group.
Israel, firmly opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state, is accelerating settlement construction, while a rise in settler attacks against Palestinians continues to raise international concern without any significant repercussions. The United Nations and most countries view Israeli settlements on West Bank land occupied during the 1967 war as illegal.
