Israel Bulldozes 2nd World War Allied Soldier Graves in Gaza

Israeli military operations in Gaza have extended into one of the territory’s most symbolically sensitive sites: the Gaza War Cemetery, where dozens of British, Australian, Polish, and other allied soldiers from World War I and II are buried. Satellite imagery and on-the-ground testimony by The Guardian show systematic earthworks inside the cemetery in al-Tuffah, Gaza City, underscoring how battlefield imperatives are colliding with protected historical spaces.

Earthworks Inside a Protected Site

Satellite images reviewed from Aug. 8 and Dec. 13 show rows of gravestones removed in the cemetery’s southwestern corner, churned topsoil, and a substantial earth berm running across the affected area. The changes were not visible in imagery from March last year. Bomb craters ring the cemetery, but this section shows organized clearing consistent with heavy equipment.

Essam Jaradah, the cemetery’s former caretaker, said two bulldozing operations took place. The first extended “approximately 12 metres around all sides of the cemetery,” an area once planted with olive trees.

Later, “slightly less than 1 dunum [1,000 sq metres] was bulldozed inside the cemetery walls,” he said, adding that the cleared corner contained Australian graves and that sand mounds were created as earth barriers. Jaradah said he witnessed the aftermath after Israeli forces withdrew in late April or early May.

The disturbed plots include more than 100 allied soldiers killed in World War II, mostly Australians with some British and Polish personnel, and four World War I sections comprising almost entirely British troops.

CWGC records also show damage to a memorial to the 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division, alongside the Indian UN memorial and Hindu, Muslim, and Turkish sections.

“Operational Measures” as Military Rationale

After being shown the imagery, the Israel Defense Forces said the area was an active combat zone. “During IDF operations in the area, terrorists attempted to attack IDF troops and took cover in structures close to the cemetery,” an army spokesperson said. “In response, to ensure the safety of IDF troops operating on the ground, operational measures were taken in the area to neutralise identified threats.”

The spokesperson added: “We emphasise that underground terrorist infrastructure was identified within the cemetery and in its surrounding area, which the IDF located and dismantled.”

The IDF said such activity in sensitive areas is approved by senior ranks and handled with required sensitivity.

Since an October ceasefire, Gaza has been divided by a “yellow line” separating Israeli and Hamas controlled areas. That boundary initially cut through the cemetery before being pushed westward.

Despite the ceasefire, Israeli troops have continued firing near the line, with more than 500 Palestinians reported killed since the ceasefire declaration, many of them children.

Heritage Loss Meets Displacement Policy

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission last addressed the site on Dec. 11, saying the cemetery had suffered “extensive damage to headstones, memorials, boundary walls, staff facilities and storage areas.”

The latest satellite images indicate even broader destruction, including the disappearance of a nearby plot for Canadian UN peacekeepers.

The episode sits alongside wider Israeli ground measures. Satellite imagery has shown before that Israeli forces have flattened large swaths of land in Beit Hanoon, northern Gaza since the ceasefire, according to an Al Jazeera investigation, an instance that reinforces evidence that heavy earthworks are systematically reshaping terrain across the Strip.

On similar accounts, retired Brigadier-General Amir Avivi told Reuters on Jan 28 Israel had cleared land in Rafah for a large camp featuring ID checks and facial recognition, as nearly 2 million Palestinians remain displaced. Critics described the move as a continuation of genocide.

A day earlier, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would maintain security control “from the Jordan River to the sea,” adding that this applies to Gaza as well.

For allied nations, the cemetery damage carries distinct resonance. A Royal British Legion spokesperson said: “We are saddened to hear that graves of British and allied personnel who bravely served in the first and second world wars have been damaged.”

Military historian Peter Stanley of the University of NSW Canberra told the Guardian that the cemetery is treated “as valued and as cared for as any cemetery in the world,” even as he stressed that stopping civilian deaths in Gaza must take priority.

Jaradah, who tended the graves for 45 years before passing responsibility to his son, described a personal loss alongside the physical damage: “I feel a sorrow like that of a child who has lost his mother.”