A view of destroyed the Fallujah cemetery, which it used as a headquarters by Israel military, and damaged buildings as Israeli attacks continue on Gaza Strip, on December 14, 2023. [Fadi Alwhidi – Anadolu Agency]
Washington, December 19 (RHC)-- As U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrived in Israel on an official visit, reports were flying of a growing rift between Washington and Tel Aviv over cemeteries in Gaza razed by Israeli occupation forces.
Meanwhile, an analysis of new satellite imagery and video footage by The New York Times showed that the Israeli forces had in recent weeks damaged or destroyed at least six cemeteries during their onslaught on the northern Gaza Strip.
“In Gaza City’s Shajaiye neighborhood, where heavy combat raged in recent days, Israeli forces razed part of the Tunisian cemetery to set up a temporary military position,” the paper said. “A satellite image…shows armored vehicles and earthen fortifications on what were intact graves days earlier.”
The U.S. daily stressed that much of the damage was inflicted this month as Israeli forces pressed ahead with their ground invasion in densely built-up areas of Gaza City. “Israeli military vehicles destroyed dozens of graves at a smaller cemetery in early December, next to an existing Israeli position half a mile to the northwest of the Tunisian cemetery,” the paper said.
According to The New York Times, satellite imagery showed new tracks and possible military vehicles at Al-Faluja cemetery in the Jabaliya neighborhood of Gaza City, with footage showing damage to the gravesite. The report said a possible military position was set up at a cemetery in Beit Hanoun, also in northern Gaza.
The other cemeteries the U.S. daily identified as razed by Israeli forces were in Sheik Ijlin, a neighborhood of Gaza City, and Beit Lahia, a city in Gaza’s far north....The Israeli damage to the gravesites in Gaza comes as the laws of armed conflict consider the intentional destruction of religious sites without military necessity a possible "war crime."
