Palestinian mother accuses Israeli army of stealing her daughter's body from grave in Gaza

By Anadolu staff

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Wala Barbakh was shocked when the Israeli army took the body of her daughter, Jana, 14, from a grave after she was killed in an airstrike in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip.

Barbakh, who was displaced from the city with her family to Rafah in the southernmost part of Gaza, rushed to the cemetery about last week after she was informed that the Israeli army was digging up graves and stealing the bodies of martyrs.

When she reached the cemetery with her husband, the couple was surprised to find out that the army had dug up Jana’s grave and stolen her body, she told Anadolu.

Looking at a picture of her daughter on her mobile phone, the grieving mother said, "The army not only killed my daughter but also stole her body."

Barbakh appealed to the UN "to intervene to retrieve the body of her abducted daughter and bury her."

Images on social media last week showed that the army caused extensive damage to a cemetery in Khan Younis.

On the other hand, the army on Jan. 19 acknowledged destroying a cemetery and excavating its graves, claiming to be searching for the bodies of Israeli hostages.

The army later revealed that the bodies were not Israeli hostages and claimed that they were "respectfully" returned to the graves.

Several decomposed bodies were lying on the ground next to the excavated graves, an Anadolu correspondent reported.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, killing at least 25,700 Palestinians and injuring 63,740 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio