Illegal Palestinian laborers taking shelter inside graves at Herzliya cemetery

Police arrested seven men in their 20s and 30s staying at the site.

By BEN HARTMAN
Palestinians found in cemetery, November 23 (photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
Palestinians found in cemetery, November 23
(photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE)
Palestinian laborers illegally residing in Israel have been using the graves in a multi-level cemetery complex as a place to sleep at night and find shelter from the elements, Tel Aviv police said on Sunday.
Police said early Sunday morning officers were patrolling the cemetery complex in Herzliya to look for illegal laborers when they found several men sleeping inside a number of the graves recently dug for the new complex.
None of the graves have yet been used for burial and were empty at the time the men began sleeping in them.
Altogether police arrested seven men in their 20s and 30s staying at the site, none of whom had a permit to reside in Israel.
The site in Herzliya is one of a number of projects built in recent years to deal with the shortage of available burial land in Israel. The sites include several floors of burial slots that are built above ground.
In recent weeks police and border police have increased efforts to arrest Palestinians residing in Israel without permits, in particular following the murder earlier this month  of a soldier in Tel Aviv by a Palestinian man in Israel without a permit.