Israeli Defense Forces bulldozed sections of a 106-year-old Commonwealth war cemetery in Gaza. Satellite imagery and witness testimony points to the destruction of more than 100 Allied graves from World War I and World War II. The news has triggered diplomatic backlash from Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand.
The Gaza War Cemetery in al-Tuffah, eastern Gaza City, holds the remains of more than 3,600 service members from over a dozen countries. The majority are British troops killed during the three Battles of Gaza in 1917. Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians, Indians, Poles and even former Ottoman soldiers are also buried there.
Nearly 800 of the graves bear no name, only the inscription, "A Soldier of the Great War, known unto God." Among the dead is Stanley Boughey, a British soldier who earned the Victoria Cross for action against Ottoman forces in Palestine in 1917.
One Palestinian family had maintained the grounds for over a century. Ibrahim Jeradeh, the cemetery's longtime caretaker, received a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his decades of service to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. His father was the cemetery's first head gardener.
Satellite Images Show Destruction
The Guardian broke the story on Feb. 4, publishing satellite photos taken on Aug. 8 and Dec. 13, 2025, that showed extensive earthworks in the cemetery's southern corner. Rows of headstones were gone. Topsoil was disturbed. A large earthen berm cut through the damaged section. The pattern of destruction pointed to heavy machinery rather than shelling.
Essam Jaradah, the cemetery's former caretaker, told The Guardian he witnessed two separate bulldozing operations.
"The first bulldozing occurred outside the cemetery walls, extending approximately 12 meters around all sides of the cemetery. These areas were entirely planted with olive trees," Jaradah said. "Later on, an area of slightly less than one dunam was bulldozed inside the cemetery walls, specifically in the corner of the cemetery, which contains graves of Australian soldiers."
The internal bulldozing carved out roughly 1,000 square meters. Jaradah said the damage was visible after Israeli troops withdrew in late April or early May 2025. After a subsequent ceasefire agreement in October 2025, a dividing "yellow line" separating Israeli-controlled territory from Hamas authority initially cut through the cemetery before being shifted further west.
The Scale of Destruction
The satellite imagery suggests the damage goes well beyond what the Commonwealth War Graves Commission initially reported. Two full sections of World War II graves were leveled. The majority belonged to Australian soldiers, alongside British and Polish service members. Many had served at Australian military hospitals in Gaza during the Second World War.
Four additional sections of World War I graves were also flattened. CWGC records indicate those belonged almost entirely to British soldiers from regiments across the U.K., killed during the campaign to take Palestine from Ottoman control.
Outside the main cemetery walls, a burial plot designated for Canadian United Nations peacekeepers was completely erased. The 22 Canadians buried there had served with the United Nations Emergency Force deployed to the Gaza Strip and Sinai Peninsula between 1956 and 1967.
Memorials honoring the British Army's 54th (East Anglian) Infantry Division, an Indian UN contingent and Hindu, Muslim and Turkish sections of the cemetery were all damaged.
Israel's Response
The IDF acknowledged conducting operations at the site.
"At the relevant time, the area in question was an active combat zone," an IDF spokesperson told The Guardian. "During IDF operations in the area, terrorists attempted to attack IDF troops and took cover in structures close to the cemetery. In response, to ensure the safety of IDF troops operating on the ground, operational measures were taken in the area to neutralize identified threats."
The military added that "underground terrorist infrastructure was identified within the cemetery and in its surrounding area, which the IDF located and dismantled." In August 2025, the IDF released a photo of a rocket launcher it said was found among the graves. A Hamas supply tunnel was reportedly located nearby.
Israel did not provide independent evidence beyond the photo. Under international humanitarian law, the intentional destruction of cemeteries constitutes a violation unless the site has become a military objective.
The cemetery had been hit by Israeli fire before. An airstrike in the mid-2000s led to the equivalent of $113,000 in compensation paid to the CWGC, and roughly 350 headstones required repair after Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009.
Allied Nations Push Back
The news triggered sharp responses across the Commonwealth.
In Australia, the damage became a flashpoint during Israeli President Isaac Herzog's controversial visit this week. Independent Sen. David Pocock used Senate estimates to pressure Foreign Minister Penny Wong on whether Prime Minister Anthony Albanese would confront Herzog directly and demand Israel pay for restoration.
Pocock read aloud a constituent's message about her father, a World War II veteran buried at the site. "My family is distressed and angry, as we were led to believe by the War Graves Commission that very few Australian people's graves had been affected," the constituent wrote.
Wilma Spence, whose father Albert Kemp served in the Second World War and is buried at the cemetery, told The Guardian she struggled to get answers about his grave. "They have no respect for the living, so why would they respect the dead?" Spence said of Israel's government.
RSL Australia national president Peter Tinley called the reports "distressing." Military historian Peter Stanley, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, went further.
"At the same time as the Israelis are, understandably, demanding the return of the remains of hostages, the IDF is bulldozing the remains of Commonwealth soldiers," Stanley said. "There's an irony there."
In Canada, Global Affairs described the situation as "deeply concerning." The Royal Canadian Legion said it was "devastated." Ottawa launched an investigation into the extent of the damage.
New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed grave concern and confirmed its ambassador to Israel raised the issue directly with the Israeli government. Retired Maj. Simon Strombom, a New Zealand veteran who served in Gaza in 2004, confirmed that 20 New Zealand and two Rarotongan soldiers' graves were among those destroyed.
The Royal British Legion expressed its own frustration. "War graves honour the memory of every member of the armed forces who has made the ultimate sacrifice and deserve to be treated with the utmost respect," a spokesman said.
What Comes Next
The CWGC said it plans to restore the cemetery once conditions allow.
"It is unlikely we will be able to enter Gaza for some time and are not able to protect the sites from further damage," the commission said in a Feb. 9 statement. Its locally employed maintenance team has been temporarily relocated to Egypt for safety.
UK Veterans Minister Al Carns told Parliament that the CWGC reported damage to roughly 10% of headstones across the site. Satellite imagery suggests the actual toll is far higher. A full assessment cannot begin until the security situation stabilizes.
For now, the cemetery where soldiers from a world war fought more than a century ago sits inside a new conflict zone, its dead disturbed once again.
