Israeli occupation forces forced residents of the village of al‑Asa’sa in Jenin in the northern West Bank on Friday evening to exhume the body of a man who had been buried only hours earlier, after illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers began digging up his grave.
Local sources said that colonizers arrived at the village cemetery and began excavating the grave of the recently buried man in an attempt to remove his body.
Israeli forces then arrived at the scene and ordered the family to exhume the body themselves and relocate it to another burial site, claiming the cemetery was too close to the illegal colony of Tarsala (Sanur), built on stolen Palestinian land.
The Israeli military had allowed colonizers to return to the Tarsala colony—established on land belonging to the nearby town of Jaba’—in April, despite the site having been evacuated in 2005.
Since their return, colonizers and Israeli forces have repeatedly invaded the towns of Jaba’ and Silat ath‑Thaher, carrying out daily acts of harassment against residents.
In recent weeks, Israeli forces have also issued demolition notices targeting several Palestinian‑owned commercial structures along the Jenin–Nablus Road, claiming they are located too close to the colony. Residents say the renewed presence of colonizers at Tarsala has brought a surge in violations, invasions, and intimidation aimed at tightening Israeli control over the area.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime
