Israeli authorities have confirmed to the Supreme Court that they buried the body of 14‑year‑old Wadea‘ Shadi Elian from occupied Jerusalem in the so‑called Numbers Graveyard, nearly six months after killing him and withholding his remains.
The disclosure came in response to a new petition filed by the family, according to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center in Silwan (Silwanic) in occupied Jerusalem.
The center said the Israeli prosecution informed the court that the burial took place on 29 October 2024, following an earlier Supreme Court ruling in August that authorized the continued withholding of the child’s body (Adalah Report).
Elian was killed on February 5, 2024, by Israeli Border Police at the entrance to al‑‘Eizariya, east of occupied Jerusalem.
Video footage showed him appearing to move toward the officers with a sharp object before turning to run, at which point the officers shot him in the back and then fired again while he lay on the ground. Israeli authorities said he had attempted to stab soldiers.
תיעוד ניסיון הדקירה בכפר אל-עזרייה, היום. צילום: דוברות המשטרה pic.twitter.com/betNNrRFkF
— הארץ חדשות (@haaretznewsvid) February 5, 2024
Silwanic confirmed that Israel is currently withholding the bodies of 30 Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem, including 10 children under the age of 18. Elian was the youngest among them.
The Numbers Graveyard is a network of secret burial sites established by Israel more than five decades ago to bury the bodies of Palestinians and what it calls “Arab combatants” killed by the Israeli forces.
Each grave is marked only with a number on a metal plate, instead of a name, and families are denied access to the sites. Israel originally referred to these locations as “enemy cemeteries,” using them to conceal the remains of individuals killed by its forces.
Note: The child’s name appears in various English transliterations in different reports, including Wadia Shadi Sa’d Elyan, Alayan, and other minor variations.
