Israel has destroyed a cemetery in the Gaza Strip containing the remains of 22 Canadian soldiers killed in the first UN peacekeeping initiative in 1956, according to media reports Wednesday.
“It’s like there’s no headstones anymore,” Lia Bons, whose brother Adriann is buried in the cemetery, told CBC News. “It just looks like dirt, gravel, sand.”
An officer with the Israel military admitted that soldiers in the Brigade Combat Team dug down to a depth of 20 – 30 meters (66 to 98 feet) under the cemetery to destroy a Hamas tunnel in February and no measures were taken to safeguard the remains of the soldiers because the operation was conducted under combat conditions.
The Gaza War Cemetery in the Tuffah district of Gaza City has been repeatedly damaged by Israel. The Canadians buried there died during the first UN peacekeeping operation following the Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956, the CBC reported. They are the last of the Canadian soldiers to be interred overseas.
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The Israeli military has destroyed headstones, used earthmoving equipment in the cemetery, and located tanks around the cemetery.
The families of the victims want the Canadian government to do more to safeguard the remains, and some want the government to bring home the remains.
Marguerite Picard wants her brother Paul to be returned and buried beside his mother and father.
“I’m quite certain that my parents would want my brother to be repatriated,” she said. “I would put him next to mom and dad, and have his name written on the headstone, so that people know he’s there.”
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