For more than a century, the Gaza War Cemetery has been the burial place of Australian war dead and a site of national remembrance.
Light Horsemen who charged across the desert in 1917 lie alongside soldiers who died in wartime hospitals far from home.
The cemetery holds more than 3400 Commonwealth burials, with Australian graves largely belonging to First World War Light Horsemen and Second World War soldiers who died in regional hospitals.
But satellite images now suggest many of those graves have been damaged or destroyed in the conflict between Israel and Gaza, leaving families thousands of kilometres away facing a second loss.
Satellite evidence of widespread destruction
The resting places of more than 100 Australian soldiers in the Gaza Strip have been devastated by Israeli military bulldozers, sparking deep grief among descendants and urgent calls for diplomatic intervention.
Recent satellite imagery and photographic evidence tendered to the Australian Senate reveal extensive destruction at the Gaza War Cemetery in Gaza City’s Tuffah neighbourhood.
About 146 of the 263 graves of Australian soldiers have been damaged, with headstones removed, walls destroyed and heavy earthen berms pushed across the cemetery.
Israeli military response
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have acknowledged operating within the cemetery.
The IDF said the location was an “active combat zone” and claimed that “terrorists attempted to attack IDF troops and took cover in structures close to the cemetery”.
According to the IDF, the earthworks and excavations, which reports state reached depths of up to 30m, were necessary defensive measures to neutralise threats and destroy underground Hamas tunnel infrastructure.
Soldiers remembered
Among those buried at the site are young Australians whose lives ended in battle, accident, and disease.
Trooper Edward James Clements was just 20 when he suffered a fatal gunshot wound during the Second Battle of Gaza on April 19, 1917.
Nearby lies Trooper George Sleeman of the Imperial Camel Corps who died from a gunshot wound to the stomach in the same battle.
Victor Godfrey Bottomley, born in Boort, Victoria in 1893, served with the 11th Light Horse Regiment after enlisting in Brisbane in 1915 and was killed in action on April 19, 1917 during the Second Battle of Gaza. Initially left unburied due to the withdrawal of his unit, he was later reinterred in Gaza Military Cemetery in 1918, with his sacrifice honoured on the Australian War Memorial and through the inscription: “HE DIED FOR HIS KING AND COUNTRY.”
Acting Corporal Albert Frederick Kemp, of the 2/7th Battalion, died from wounds in 1942 while serving in the Middle East at only 26 years of age. His grave is in the cemetery’s Second World War section, which satellite images now suggest has been obliterated.
Not all died in combat. Acting Corporal Patrick William Cotterill drowned at Hirbiya beach in July 1941 while heroically trying to save a fellow soldier struggling in the water. His grave, AD9, is among those now destroyed.
Private Algie Albert Pischke died of wounds from the Syria–Lebanon campaign days later.
Sergeant Alan Kenneth Bebbington, 27, was buried beneath a headstone bearing the words chosen by his wife in Seymour: “Ever remembered by his loving wife.”
Lance Corporal Christopher John Parker died in 1917 after volunteering to move wounded comrades to safety under heavy fire near Ebdis.
Private Arthur Parker, a truck driver from Port Adelaide who enlisted after losing his father, died from measles and pneumonia in Gaza in 1941. His mother chose the inscription: “Too Far Away Your Grave to See, But We Always Think of Thee.”
These were only some of the young men who crossed the world to fight and never returned home.
Concerns over disturbance of remains
Major General Wade Stothart, director of the Office of Australian War Graves, confirmed that while direct ground surveys were currently impossible, satellite imagery made it “quite possible” that the human remains of fallen Australian servicemen had been exposed, moved or damaged.
Independent senator David Pocock went further, stating that, based on the evidence, the disturbance of soldiers’ bodies “looks very likely”.
A Commonwealth War Graves Commission spokeswoman told NewsWire there had been no further updates since March.
“As soon as it is safe and practical to do so, we will complete on-site assessments of the cemetery and begin restoring the site to a manner befitting all those who fell,” the spokeswoman said.
“We will share further updates as soon as we are able to safely access our sites in Gaza.”
Grief and calls for action
Veterans Affairs Minister Matt Keogh acknowledged the destruction has “caused a great deal of anguish for relatives and the broader Australian community”.
Families are demanding apologies and reparations from Israel and are urging the Australian government to take a stronger stance.
For more than a century, the cemetery was meticulously cared for by the Jaradah family. The current head gardener is the fourth generation to tend the graves.
Essam Jaradah described watching the destruction as a profound personal loss.
“I feel a sorrow like that of a child who has lost his mother,” Mr Jaradah told The Guardian.
“It was the worst day of my life when I watched the graves break. I felt my soul was snatched from me.”
As the conflict intensified, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission evacuated five of its six local staff members and their families to Egypt.
Mr Jaradah remains in Gaza but is barred from visiting the cemetery by an IDF-enforced “yellow line”.
The CWGC estimates rebuilding the cemetery will cost about £4.9m ($A9.6m). Israel previously paid compensation for damage during military operations in 2006 and 2009.
The Returned and Services League of Australia has received assurances the site will be restored, but officials said post-conflict humanitarian work would take priority. For now, restoration is impossible.
