Overview
- The Asasa family, which buried 80-year-old Hussein Asasa on Friday after coordinating with the Israeli army, says settlers arrived at the village cemetery, dug at the grave, threatened to bring a bulldozer, and forced them to exhume and rebury him elsewhere.
- The Israeli military said the funeral had prior approval, denied ordering any reburial, reported confiscating settlers’ digging tools, and said troops stayed at the site to prevent clashes and protect the family during the transfer.
- Video from the hillside cemetery, with its location verified by Reuters, showed men carrying a shrouded body as soldiers walked nearby, in what the UN human rights office condemned as an appalling act that dehumanizes Palestinians.
- Residents of Sa-Nur and the Samaria Regional Council argued the grave was a provocation placed too close to the settlement and said Palestinians aimed to block future expansion by creating new facts on the ground.
- Sa-Nur was reopened in April 2026 as part of a rapid expansion of Israeli settlements, and rights groups say settler violence has risen since 2023, increasing pressure on nearby Palestinian communities and putting the army’s role under sharper review.