GAZA/ ISRAEL: REBURIAL OF JEWISH REMAINS TRANSFERRED FROM GAZA SETTLEMENTS AFTER WITHDRAWALS

Record ID: 400804

  • Title: GAZA/ ISRAEL: REBURIAL OF JEWISH REMAINS TRANSFERRED FROM GAZA SETTLEMENTS AFTER WITHDRAWALS
  • Date: 28th August 2005
  • Summary: (W3) KISSUFIM CROSSING BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA (AUGUST 28, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF ISRAELI SOLDIER STANDING AT CROSSING GATE 0.03 2. VARIOUS OF AMBULANCE CARRYING REMAINS, DRIVING FROM GAZA TO NITZAN, ESCORTED BY POLICE CARS 0.26 (W3) NITZAN, ISRAEL (AUGUST 28, 2005) (REUTERS) 3. WIDE OF FAMILY MEMBERS GATHERING FOR THE FUNERAL
  • Embargoed: 12th September 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KISSUFIM CROSSING AND NITZAN, ISRAEL
  • City:
  • Country: Gaza Israel
  • Reuters ID: LVA6SHCSFBYGN3W1O9DVKRPJSFS8
  • Story Text: Israel digs up Jewish remains in Gaza settlement for reburial.



    Israel's army has started digging up the remains of 48 Jews buried
    in Gaza for reburial in Israel, starting a particularly sensitive stage of the
    withdrawal from the occupied strip.

    Flag-wrapped coffins containing the first of 48 bodies from Gush
    Katif's graveyard were brought out of Gaza on Sunday (August 28) to next of
    kin waiting to hold second funerals in the towns and trailer parks where they
    have lived since being evacuated.

    Israel completed evacuations of Gaza settlements last week, the first
    time it removed the enclaves from any of the land that Palestinians seek for a
    state. All the bodies are expected to be removed from the cemetery within five
    days.

    Drowning victim Nehemia Vinter's remains were the first to be laid to
    rest again, at Nitzan, a new community created up the Israeli coast for former
    Gaza settlers.

    Relocating the graves of Gush Katif set a historical precedent. The
    Yamit settlement bloc was removed in Sinai in 1982 under a peace deal with
    Egypt, but there was no cemetery.

    Some of the dead from Gush Katif were killed in attacks by Palestinian
    militants. Most had died of natural causes.

    A few Jewish ultranationalists had said the presence of the graves made
    it impossible to give up the territory.

    But Israel's chief rabbis agreed that it was better to exhume the
    bodies than leave graves behind and potentially invite vandalism by
    Palestinians, who saw the settlers as interlopers.

    Exhumations were left until after settlement evacuations because of
    worries that the sight could further infuriate settlers who saw the withdrawal
    as ceding land bestowed on the Jews by God and a reward for Palestinian
    attacks.

    Israel finished removing 9,000 settlers from the Gaza Strip and
    northern West Bank last week. Israel expects to withdraw troops from Gaza in
    September. The World Court brands all the settlements illegal. Israel disputes
    this.



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