GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center)، The Palestinian Center for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared has called for an urgent, independent international investigation into what it described as forced burials and large-scale earthworks carried out by the Israeli occupation near Zikim, north of the Gaza Strip.
The center said the violations, exposed in a recent CNN investigation, require immediate intervention by the International Committee of the Red Cross and specialized recovery teams to locate victims, retrieve their remains and ensure dignified burial.
In a statement on Thursday, the center said the findings revealed by CNN, based on hundreds of videos and images from the vicinity of the Zikim crossing, as well as testimonies from eyewitnesses and local aid-truck drivers, point to a serious crime that demands a rapid and independent international inquiry.
According to the center, the investigation documents severe violations, including the burial of Palestinian civilians in shallow, unmarked graves, leaving their remains exposed to decomposition and scavenging. It also highlights cases of civilians being shot while searching for humanitarian aid.
The group added that the investigation corroborates testimonies it has collected from families of the missing and survivors. Satellite images and on-the-ground footage show consistent activity by Israeli bulldozers throughout the summer months in areas where Palestinian civilians were killed by airstrikes or direct gunfire.
Driver accounts and rescue-worker testimonies cited in the report confirm that Israeli occupation forces (IOF) treated the bodies of victims as debris to be pushed aside or buried without identification.
Ambulances were prevented from reaching the area for days, and families later found decomposed bodies piled on top of each other, some mixed with food-aid crates after bulldozers plowed through the sites. The findings also align with testimonies from former Israeli soldiers describing similar treatment of civilian remains around IOF bases or mass displacement sites.
The Palestinian Center stressed the need for a comprehensive international inquiry covering Zikim and all locations where Palestinians were subjected to mass burial, concealment of bodies or forced disappearance, and for identifying those responsible for these violations.
The center urged the Red Cross to immediately access the area, accompany recovery teams, document burial sites, identify remains where possible and uphold families’ right to know the fate of their loved ones.
It also held the US Civilian Coordination Center, which oversees operations near the crossing, directly responsible for monitoring the area and demanded immediate action and full disclosure of measures taken to prevent such violations.
The center further called on all international mechanisms concerned with civilian protection to intervene, compel Israel to release maps of burial locations and enable families and medical teams to access them. It stressed that these crimes do not expire and that accountability is essential to ensure they are never repeated.
