By Palestine Chronicle Staff 
The Israeli army has failed to prove to a CNN crew their claim that a tunnel used by the Resistance Movement Hamas ran underneath a cemetery in Gaza that its forces had bulldozed.
This comes a week after an investigation by the channel found that the Israeli army had damaged or destroyed at least 16 cemeteries in Gaza since the beginning of its onslaught on the besieged enclave.
CNN reported on Monday that Israeli commanders “failed to prove their claim during a three-hour visit to the Bani Suheila cemetery and the surrounding area.”
Israeli forces bulldozed and excavated the Bani Suheila cemetery, situated near Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, after it claimed that its troops had “repeatedly” come under fire from the area of the cemetery.
On Saturday, Israeli commanders took a CNN crew into a tunnel near the cemetery and into an underground command center that the military claimed was below the cemetery.
However, CNN reported that “IDF commanders declined to show reporters the tunnel shaft they said emerged inside the cemetery, claiming there was sensitive machinery underground and that the structure was unstable.”
A military spokesperson said video footage would be provided of the tunnel shaft in the enormous hole, but never did.
Instead, the Israeli military provided drone footage that showed two other tunnel entrances – one of which CNN entered – near the cemetery, the report said.
“CNN geolocated the tunnel entrances using footage filmed on the ground, as well as satellite imagery, and found that neither was in the cemetery grounds.”
The Israeli military stood by its claims, insisting in a press release that a tunnel ran directly through the burial site, the channel reported.
Army Brigadier General Dan Goldfuss reportedly maintained that the heavy damage to the cemetery was necessary to uncover the tunnel that he claimed was beneath its surface.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
