Gaza graves transferred
2005-08-28 11:52
Nitzan, Israel - Military rabbis began the sensitive task of digging up 48 Jewish graves in a Gaza Strip cemetery on Sunday and transferring them to plots in Israel as part of the country's pullout from the coastal strip, the army said.
The reburials came a week after the army finished removing all 21 Gaza Strip settlements and four more in the northern West Bank as part of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's "disengagement" plan.
Officials exhumed the first two bodies Sunday morning, sending them in flag draped coffins to their new resting places. Chief military rabbi Israel Weiss ruled the bodies must be reburied on the same day they are disinterred.
All 48 graves were to be moved by the end of the week, the army said.
"This is very difficult for us," said Rivka Vinter as she escorted the body of her late husband, Nehemia, to his reburial.
"Suddenly we have a rerun of the funeral. It is surreal and I don't know how we will get through this," she told Israel Radio.
Nehemia Vinter drowned in the Mediterranean 10 years ago and was buried in the cemetery outside the settlement of Neve Dekalim, where he lived.
The military created a new cemetery in Nitzan, where Israel is building a new community to house some of the 8 500 settlers evacuated from Gaza. Some of the bodies will be buried there, while others will be buried in other cemeteries in keeping with the families' wishes.
"I have to praise the defence ministry," said Vinter. "They have built us a new cemetery in Nitzan, that really reminds us of the small cemetery we had. It is in the same spirit, small and intimate."
Military officials were determined to move the cemetery, one of the most sensitive aspects of the pullout, causing as little friction as possible with the families. The public and press were barred from the Gaza cemetery during the exhumations.
"We insisted on not transferring the dead from their graves before the evacuation of the settlers," Weiss said.
"We are committed to secure the honour and respect ... of the deceased and to transfer them to a secure place," Weiss told Israel TV.
Three of the dead were soldiers killed in action and they will be reburied with full military ceremonies, the army said.
- AP