The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has admitted to digging up Palestinian graves in a Gaza cemetery.
Footage emerged earlier this week from a bulldozed graveyard in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where smashed graves lay open and human remains covered in shrouds had been left on the surface without being reburied.
The IDF said its soldiers dug up graves in the cemetery to see if dead hostages were buried there.
“The hostage identification process, conducted at a secure and alternative location, ensures optimal professional conditions and respect for the deceased,” it told NBC, the American broadcaster.
But photographs from the graveyard showed the extensive damage caused by the exhumations.
The tracks of heavy vehicles are imprinted on the ground amid the crumbling rubble of crushed gravestones and cracked open burial vaults.
Satellite images acquired by CNN show that 16 cemeteries in Gaza have been damaged by the IDF since the ground offensive began in late October.
One, in the Bureij refugee camp, has had a new dirt road laid over part of it by Israeli troops.
Read more at AOL.com
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