Settlers exhume body of Palestinian they say was buried too close to settlement

Family forced to rebury body as IDF soldiers stood by; Palestinian man and young son reportedly attacked by settlers wielding sharp instruments in southern West Bank

Israeli settlers began to exhume the newly buried body of a Palestinian before forcing relatives to remove it from a freshly dug grave to another location after claiming the deceased was buried too close to an Israeli settlement, all while troops stood by.

The incident took place Friday near the newly re-established northern West Bank settlement of Sa-Nur.

According to an IDF statement on Saturday, the funeral held by the Palestinians near Sa-Nur had been coordinated in advance with the military.

Despite this, a number of settlers from Sa-Nur arrived at the location shortly after with digging tools and began to exhume the body. The Palestinians then returned to the gravesite, and the settlers demanded that they take the body out of the grave and move it elsewhere, claiming that it was too close to the settlement.

The IDF said that troops were “dispatched to the cemetery following a report of friction between Israeli civilians who were digging in the ground at the site, and Palestinians.”

The army said the troops “confiscated digging tools from the Israelis and remained at the location to prevent further friction.”

Footage posted online showed soldiers standing by as the Palestinians carried the body to another location.

The IDF said that it “condemns any attempt to act in a manner that harms public order, the rule of law, and the dignity of the living and the dead.”

“The issue of coordinating the funeral and the management of the incident will be investigated by the commanders, and lessons will be learned accordingly,” the army added.

The incident is the latest in a string of violent attacks by settlers across the West Bank, largly unimpeded by the military.

A Palestinian man and his young son were hospitalized after being attacked by settlers in Khirbet Shuweika, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank on Friday, Palestinian media reported.

Footage published by Palestinian media shows the pair on the side of a road, with the boy bleeding from the back of his head and the father bleeding from a gash on the side of his forehead.

Separate footage showed them receiving treatment at a hospital.

WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, reported that the two were attacked by several settlers wielding sharp instruments, who also shattered the windows of the Palestinians’ car.

It follows several violent attacks reportedly carried out by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank this week,

In one incident, four Palestinians were wounded, including a 71-year-old woman, during a confrontation between settlers and the residents of a village east of Hebron.

Critics accuse the government of turning a blind eye to the violent attacks by settler extremists, which have become increasingly deadly in recent years. The military recorded 867 incidents of nationalistic crime and settler violence in 2025, compared to 682 incidents in 2024.

The IDF has also faced criticism for often standing by while attacks unfold — with troops sometimes actively participating — or failing to prosecute those responsible, though the attacks take place on a daily basis.

IDF Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth recently warned about the near-daily phenomenon, which he termed “Jewish terrorism.”