Palestinian family forced to exhume father’s body after settler confrontation

A Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank says Israeli settlers forced them to exhume the body of Hussein Asasa, 80, shortly after his funeral, turning a burial into a confrontation over land, authority and the dead.

Asasa died of natural causes on Friday and was first buried that evening in Asasa village near Jenin, with permits from the Israeli military and soldiers present. But family members say they were called back to the cemetery after villagers reported settlers at the grave ordering it to be dug up. Mohammed Asasa said the settlers claimed the land belonged to settlement territory and said burial there was not allowed.

The family said the settlers threatened to bring in a bulldozer, and relatives chose to exhume the body themselves rather than let the dispute escalate. Video circulating on social media appeared to show settlers watching while people dug and removed what looked like a body as Israeli troops stood nearby. The location of the footage was verified, though not the date.

The Israeli military said the funeral had been coordinated with it and that it had not instructed the family to rebury the man. It said soldiers were sent after a report of civilians digging in the area, confiscated tools and remained on the scene to prevent further friction. The military also said it condemned actions that violate the dignity of the living and the dead.

The grave was near the Sa-Nur settlement, a site that carries unusual political weight. Sa-Nur was one of 19 West Bank and Gaza settlements evacuated under Israel’s 2005 disengagement plan, and the Israeli government approved its re-establishment in 2024. That makes even a family burial part of a broader struggle over land use and sovereign control in the occupied West Bank.

The UN Human Rights Office condemned the incident, and Ajith Sunghay, who heads its Palestinian office, called it appalling and said it reflected the dehumanization Palestinians face in the occupied territory, including the dead. In a March 2026 report, the office said Israel had accelerated unlawful settlement expansion and annexation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and said more than 36,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in the 12 months to October 31, 2025.

Human Rights Watch has separately said settler violence against Palestinians intensified in the shadow of the war, with armed settlers exploiting the climate of conflict to seize land and advance settlement goals. For the Asasa family, the burial of a father became another episode in a system where intimidation, military coordination and disputed land claims can reach into the most intimate rituals of daily life.