Sunday, January 6, 2008

Mass Grave in Umm al-Rashrash Includes Remains of Muslims in Military Uniform Unearthed



By Gaza, MENA 5/1/2008

Contributed by Fatima

"Al-Aqsa Foundation for the Reconstruction of Islamic Sanctities has discovered an Islamic cemetery in the town of Umm al-Rashrash, now Eilat, containing the remains of dead Muslims buried together.

The Foundation said in a statement that some of the remains were in military uniform and parts of the Holy Koran and knives were also found in their clothes. "They could be among those who were executed either by hanging or firing squad," said the statement, calling upon all Arab parties to send any available piece of information helps identify the remains of the dead and the cause of being buried in this site.

The statement pointed out that the Foundation's leader, Sheikh Ali Abu Sheikha, received information the day before last that human remains were unearthed in a site where the Israeli municipality of Eilat was making some drilling operations to expand a cemetery where Jews and non-Jews are buried. A team from the foundation dispatched to Eilat discovered the Islamic cemetery at dawn the next day.

It is noteworthy that the village of Umm al-Rashrash, renamed Eilat, has been part of the Egyptian territory on the Palestinian-Egyptian border, according to the Ottoman decree issued in 1906, which demarcated these borders internationally before the Israeli occupation in March 10, 1949. Israel sparked a lot of controversy several months ago when it claimed that Umm al-Rashrash was not Egyptian."

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