In West Bank, Israel denies Jenin families right to bury loved ones at home

As a result of Israeli raids that ravaged the city and its refugee camp, 11 bodies were lying in Jenin’s morgues for almost two weeks as the country was occupied by Israel.
Because of Israeli drones, artillery, and snipers, their families feared placing them in Jenin.
Because of Israeli snipers stationed on high buildings, families are afraid to place their loved ones in the camp cemetery, according to Mahmoud al-Saadi, director of emergency services in Jenin on Monday. Some bodies have spent more than 13 days in the morgue. Even carrying out a burial requires Israeli permission, which has been delayed numerous times.
Honouring the dead
Numerous people have died since Israel’s most recent raid on Jenin on January 21. Israeli soldiers have killed at least 30 people, and others have died naturally.
They lingered, unburied, as their families struggled to lay them to rest.
For 55-year-old Bassam Turkman, who lives in the refugee camp, the sudden death of his 60-year-old brother, Osama, was an “insurmountable loss” deepened by the torment of being unable to give him a proper burial.
Driven from their home, the Turkman family sought refuge in Burqin, a town west of Jenin. However, their fragile sense of stability was once more undermined by the sudden death and decline of the eldest brother.
As the family pondered whether to bury Osama in Burqin’s unfamiliar soil or cling to the camp’s graveyard where he was buried in the cold limbo of a hospital morgue for days, they pondered whether to leave him there or whether to lay him in the camp’s graveyard where they were compelled to flee.
Bassam and his family pleaded for Burqin.
“We grew up believing that honouring the dead meant burying them quickly”, he told Al Jazeera. “It just didn’t feel right to leave him in the morgue indefinitely,” said one patient, “especially since the hospital was already crammed with the bodies of the patients who had died during the operation.”
The raid on Jenin comes during a spike in Israeli violence in the West Bank since a fragile ceasefire , halted Israel’s 15-month assault on Gaza, which has killed close to 62, 000 Palestinians and left the enclave in ruins.
The operation has driven nearly all of Jenin refugee camp’s 20, 000 people from their homes, according to the United Nations.
“We are a people who need to visit our dead, to sit by their graves, talk to them and remember”, Bassam said. “It’s painful to grieve with our loved ones away from home.”
But in the end, Osama was laid to rest in Burqin, about 4km (2.5 miles) from Jenin. As Israeli bulldozers tore through the camp’s infrastructure, Bassam and his family stood by the side of Osama’s grave.
Members of the al-Khateeb family were seated beside the Turkmans to offer their funeral conceits. They were bidding farewell to 59-year-old Marwan al-Khateeb, who died on the first day of the raids and was buried near Osama in Burqin’s cemetery.
“The occupation treats the deceased or the living with no regard.” To them, we’re all terrorists”, Bassam lamented.
‘ Martyrs ‘ without proper farewells
On January 28, Israeli forces shot 25-year-old Osama Abu al-Hayja as he stood on the roof of a building. He died as a result of gunfire that prevented his family and an ambulance from reaching him until the following day.
Additionally, it was forbidden for his family to conduct traditional funerals.
“We wanted to lay Osama to rest alongside the other martyrs”, his older brother, Tareq Abu al-Hayja, said. The camp was sealed, however, by the soldiers. They even blocked roads to prevent people from gathered.
Public funerals for victims of Israeli forces have long been a form of defiance and mourning in Jenin. Families from across the West Bank travel from across the West Bank to participate in the ominous ceremonies to honor those who many people here refer to as “martyrs” and gather hundreds of people to accompany the dead to burial sites.

The Abu al-Hayja family knew they would never be able to bid Osama his “martyr” adieu the farewell he deserved, but they were hesitant to leave him unburied for days.
So they chose to bury Osama in the nearby village of Martyrs ‘ Triangle, ensuring a dignified farewell despite the circumstances.
“The decision wasn’t easy”, Tareq said, “but we wanted him to have a proper burial, even if it meant doing it far from home”.
After 13 days of fighting in the camp, the Palestinian liaison office and its Israeli counterpart agreed to allow funerals for those who had bodies lying in morgues on Saturday.
The Israeli authorities imposed strict conditions: no processions, no public gatherings, only ambulances quietly transporting the dead to the cemetery, each accompanied by just two family members.
When the Israeli military rescinded the coordination citing “security concerns,” mourners had only just begun getting ready for the mass burial.
The delays caused Mahmoud of the emergency services and his team to improvise, placing four bodies in the eastern district of Jenin, which was less affected, but postponing seven others’ burials once more.
The remaining seven people’s burials had been finalized by Israeli forces by Monday.
But the mourning processions have been reshaped by Israeli military restrictions: no throngs of mourners, no slogans.
“We’ve always honoured our martyrs together”, one mourner said, declining to give his name for fear of reprisals.
“Now, we bury them in silence”.
Source: Aljazeera
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