Hussein Asasa’s burial near Jenin: what happened, and how the IDF and UN responded

Soon after the funeral, villagers called the family back to the cemetery because settlers were at the grave and ordering it dug up, Mohammed said ^[5]. He said the settlers claimed the land was part of a nearby settlement; the family account also said relatives removed the body themselves after being warned that settlers would use a bulldozer if they did not ^[5][8]. The family then reburied Asasa in another cemetery ^[5].

What the video reporting adds

Reuters, in a video report carried by MarketScreener, said it verified the location of footage from the scene but not the date; that report said Israeli soldiers were visible in the images ^[8]. Other reporting said verified video appeared to show people removing what looked like a body from a hillside while Israeli troops walked behind them ^[5].

That visual record supports the reporting that soldiers were present, but it does not by itself settle who ordered the exhumation. On that point, the family’s account and the Israeli military’s account differ ^[5][8][12].

How the IDF responded

The Israeli military said the funeral had been coordinated with it and denied instructing the family to rebury Asasa ^[5]. It said soldiers were sent to the area after a report of settlers “digging in the area” during a confrontation, and it said soldiers confiscated digging tools from Israeli civilians and stayed at the site to prevent further friction ^[5].

In a separate report, Xinhua said the IDF was investigating the incident and quoted the military as condemning “any attempt to act in a way that harms public order, the rule of law, and human dignity and the dignity of the deceased” ^[12].

How the UN responded

The UN Human Rights Office condemned the incident ^[5]. Reports identified Ajith Sunghay, who heads OHCHR’s office in the occupied Palestinian territory, as describing the exhumation as horrifying and as embodying the dehumanization of Palestinians in the occupied territory ^[9][10]. Other reporting on the UN reaction used the phrase “appalling and emblematic of the dehumanization of Palestinians” ^[5][15].

Was it near Tarsala or Sa-Nur?

Some references to the incident have used different place names. The public reports cited here place the burial at Asasa or al-Asa’asa village, south of Jenin, and identify the nearby settlement as Sa-Nur or Sanur ^[5][11][14]. They do not establish Tarsala as the settlement involved. Reuters also reported that it could not reach settlers from nearby Sa-Nur for comment ^[5].

Reports described Sa-Nur as a settlement whose re-establishment had been approved by the Israeli government the previous year ^[4][14].

What remains contested

The clearest supported conclusion is narrow: Asasa’s family says settlers forced the grave to be opened and the body moved; Israeli soldiers were present in reported footage; the IDF denied ordering the reburial and said it was investigating; and the UN condemned the episode as dehumanizing ^[5][8][12]. Because settlers from Sa-Nur were not reached for comment and the date of the circulated video was not independently verified, the published record does not fully settle every detail of responsibility ^[5][8].

STORY: Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank forced Palestinians to exhume the body of their father from his freshly dug village grave near a settlement, his family said. Eighty-year-old Hussein Asasa died on Friday of natural causes and was buried tha...