'Israel' withholding 735 Palestinian bodies, including children

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
Today 10:45
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Palestinian families are denied the right to bury their loved ones as "Israel" withholds hundreds of bodies, deepening the wounds of the decades-long occupation.

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The bodies of Palestinian martyrs are withheld in secret cemeteries and given identification numbers. (Getty Images)

The National Campaign for the Retrieval of Palestinian and Arab War Victims’ Corpses and the Disclosure of the Fate of the Missing has revealed that "Israel" continues to withhold the bodies of 735 Palestinians, including 67 children.

According to the campaign, 256 of these bodies are being held in what have come to be known as "number cemeteries": mass graves marked only with stones and metal plates bearing numbers instead of names. Each number corresponds to a confidential file maintained by Israeli authorities.

The campaign reported that 479 bodies have been withheld since the beginning of 2025 alone. Among them are 86 Palestinians who died in Israeli custody, 67 children, and 10 women.

The campaign condemned these practices as part of "Israel’s" ongoing and systematic violations against the Palestinian people, and accused the occupation of mishandling and desecrating the bodies of martyrs, as well as stealing remains from burial sites, not to mention the theft of vital organs.

The occupation has stolen organs from Palestinian bodies more than once during its genocidal war, as per the Government Media Office in Gaza.

IOF hold 1,500 Palestinian bodies in desert detention facility: Haaretz

Back in August, Israeli daily Haaretz exposed that "Israel" has withheld the bodies of around 1,500 Palestinians at the notorious Sde Teiman detention facility in al-Naqab desert since October 7, 2023.

According to the Israeli daily, an Israeli soldier who served at the site said the bodies are kept in refrigerated containers and identified only by numbers rather than names. The soldier described the conditions as grim, noting that many corpses show signs of decomposition, while others have amputated limbs or partially recognizable faces.

Haaretz estimated that most of the bodies are likely those of elite Hamas fighters who carried out the October 7 operation. The report also stated that none of the bodies were transferred to forensic centers for autopsy or identification procedures.

While the exact number of Palestinians detained from Gaza remains unclear, Israeli figures indicate that over 9,000 Palestinians are currently detained in Israeli prisons.

Selling the dead: USC supplied human bodies for 'Israel' war training

The revelations about "Israel" withholding the remains of Palestinians come amid new reports exposing a broader pattern of violations, including the desecration of bodies, theft of remains, and reports of organ harvesting, extending beyond occupied Palestine and into its actions abroad.

The University of Southern California (USC) has received nearly $1.1 million from the US Navy over the past seven years for human cadavers used in military medical training, including courses designed for the Israeli occupation Forces (IOF), according to federal contracts reviewed by Annenberg Media earlier this month.

Since 2017, the Navy has paid USC more than $860,000 for at least 89 “fresh cadaver bodies,” 32 of which were used by IOF medical teams at Los Angeles General Medical Center. One contract remains active, allowing an additional $225,000 in cadaver purchases through September 2026.

Although the cadaver contracts represent less than 1% of USC’s broader Navy agreements, researchers could not identify any other US university supplying bodies for IOF training.

The Navy Trauma Training Center (NTTC), which operates from L.A. General, oversees the courses. While US Navy physicians, nurses, and corpsmen rotate through a 30-day combat medicine program, IOF surgical teams undergo 96 hours of intensive trauma training.

Documents show that IOF personnel practiced on both non-perfused and perfused cadavers, the latter artificially pumped with blood to simulate battlefield conditions.