Risk to Irish plots as Israeli bombardments hit Gaza cemeteries
The headstone of Private T. Kennedy from the Connaught Rangers in the war cemetery in Deir al Balah in Gaza before the Israel-Hamas war began in October. Israeli military operations in the area have damaged a section of the graveyard, but the section with the Irish graves, however, remains relatively unscathed. Photo: Hannah McCarthy
Born at the turn of the 19th century to John and Kate Aylward on a lane-way off Barrack Street in Waterford, Herbert/Hubert Aylward died in 1917 in southern Gaza, where he was buried in the commonwealth military cemetery in Deir al Balah.
Aged just 18 years old, Aylward is believed to be the youngest Irish person buried in the war-ravaged Palestinian enclave. The teenager’s name is one of 1,100 carved into the First World War Memorial in Dungarvan in Waterford.
In a second, larger commonwealth cemetery near Gaza city where 2,696 graves lie, Mary Danaher, originally from Athea in Limerick, is buried under a tombstone inscribed with the words “Saint Patrick Apostle of Ireland Pray For Her”.
The 26-year-old Irish nurse died in 1918 while serving with Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service at the tail end of the British military campaign in Palestine which ousted the Turkish Ottomans from the region.
Historians estimate up to 35,000 Irish men and women lost their lives while serving with British imperial forces during the First World War when Ireland was ruled by Britain. Many of the dead were buried overseas in military graves overseen by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
The Irish who served in Palestine during the war primarily enlisted with the British army in Ireland through the 10th Irish Division, or as immigrants or the children of Irish immigrants in the UK and Australia. The 10th Irish Division drew its members from the four provinces of Ireland and included regiments such as the Royal Munster Fusiliers, the Connaught Rangers and the Royal Irish Rifles.
Unlike the 16th Irish Division which drew many nationalist recruits, or the 36th Ulster Division whose troops were staunch supporters of unionism, the 10th Irish Division’s character has been described as “neither unionist nor nationalist” by the historian Stephen Sandford.
The division was deployed to the Middle East in 1915 under the command of Lt. Gen. Bryan Mahon where it suffered high casualties in Gallipoli before being transferred to Salonika and then Palestine, where extreme heat, dehydration and disease plagued the soldiers.
As the movement for independence in Ireland grew stronger and casualties on the frontline mounted, Irish recruits for the British army dwindled. This meant that the 10th Irish Division’s mounting casualties were mostly replaced by soldiers from elsewhere in the UK, rather than Ireland as World War One raged on.
The two commonwealth cemeteries feature crosses for Christian soldiers, the Khanda for Sikhs, Stars of David for Jewish soldiers and an inscription of the Shahada for fallen Muslim soldiers who served in the British operations in Gaza. Many of the soldiers were killed or died from disease in their 20s and 30s.
Before the bloody war between Hamas and Israel erupted last October, the two commonwealth cemeteries in Gaza were tended to by local Palestinian families. The Jaradah family oversaw the gardens of the Gaza War Cemetery.
The head groundskeeper, Ibrahim Jaradah, 33, is the fourth generation of his family to tend to the military graves and was born in the cemetery lodge. His great-grandfather Rabie Jaradah tended to British war memorials and graves in Beersheba. When the area became part of the state of Israel in 1948, the Jaradah family fled to Gaza as refugees.
As well as gardening and maintenance of the grounds, Ibraham organised tours of the cemetery which explained the importance of commemorating the lives of the dead to local school children. He and his family were forced to flee southern Gaza at the start of the current war. By Whatsapp, Ibrahim told that the only thing he was focusing on was the day-to-day survival of his family and hoped for a truce soon.
At the start of the conflict, the Gaza War Cemetery was damaged during an Israeli bombardment. According to satellite footage the Indian and Ottoman/Egyptian sections have been badly damaged, as well as the section for Canadian UN peacekeepers who served in Gaza.
The surrounding border area is also damaged but by contrast, the main section of the Gaza War Cemetery which hosts the Irish graves appears relatively unscathed but with some visible damage to headstones.
Israeli military operations in January in Deir al Balah damaged the section which hosts the graves of Sikh, Hindu and Muslim soldiers from India, according to satellite images and footage from CNN. Before the war, green grass was visible in the location of the Indian section on satellite images but it’s now mostly sandy, with upturned soil.
The buildings along the border of the site, which includes the home of the Awaja family who maintain the cemetery there, also appear to be damaged or demolished. The section with the Irish graves, however, remains relatively unscathed, according to the latest satellite images.
Lt. Col. Oren Schindler commanded the 118th Brigade’s 74th Battalion which conducted operations in the area around Deir al Balah cemetery — which includes the graves of several Jewish soldiers who served in the British forces. In an interview with Israeli outlet Ynet, he said the cemetery was “a really special place…that seems like a piece of paradise, with it being green and untouched amid the rubble. It suffered some damage in the battles, but it can be restored.”
The Israeli commander said that a Hamas weapons depot was located in the vicinity of the graves and tunnels that may lie underneath the cemetery but said that excavation investigations had not been made “because we didn’t want to violate its sanctity.”
A spokesperson for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission says that it is concerned about recent damage to the cemeteries and added: “We are monitoring the situation closely and are working to support all our dedicated colleagues and their families in the region. Their safety remains our foremost concern."
Since the start of the war, the Israeli military has desecrated at least 16 other cemeteries during its ground offensive in Gaza, according to a CNN investigation, which reported that gravestones had been ruined, soil upturned, and, in some cases, bodies unearthed.
The legal team for South Africa cited the damage to cemeteries including the Gaza War Cemetery, inflicted by Israeli forces during its submissions at the International Court of Justice which alleged that Israel was committing genocide. The written submissions argued that the damage to these sites was evidence of an effort to destroy “Palestinian personal lives and private memories, histories and futures.”
Israel has denied that it is committing genocide in Gaza. An Israeli military spokesperson told that Israel “in no way targets cemeteries as such, and has no policy of harming or desecrating cemeteries” but that due to the policy of Hamas embedding itself within the civilian population “cemeteries or specific gravesites, like other civilian sites or structures, can come to be damaged in different ways.”
Israel has previously paid compensation to the commonwealth cemeteries for damage sustained, including to 300 headstones during its military operations in Gaza in 2006 and 2009 — although Israel disputed the cause of some of the damage. The Israeli government made payments in acknowledgement of "the good relations between Israel and Britain, and out of respect for the soldiers in the cemetery and our values as a nation".
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