The Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) reported that the Israeli occupation has escalated its practice of withholding the bodies of Palestinian martyrs since launching its genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people on October 7, 2023.

In a statement marking the Palestinian National Day for the Recovery of Palestinian and Other Arab War Victims' Bodies and the Disclosure of the Fate of the Missing, observed on August 27, the PPS revealed that "Israel" has withheld 149 bodies over the past 11 months, excluding the bodies of the martyrs from the Gaza Strip.

It also emphasized that the current number of withheld bodies "represents more than half of those withheld since 2015."

"وقفة لاسترداد جثامين الشهداء المحتجزة في مقابر الأرقام الإسرائيلية.. وفي #الضفة_الغربية "إسرائيل" تسعى إلى حرب تهجير عبر الاغتيالات."

التفاصيل مع مراسلة #الميادين، نسرين سلمي، في #بالحبر_الجديد#طوفان_الأقصى#فلسطين_المحتلة#الميادين pic.twitter.com/9EnyXS8HSL

— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) August 27, 2024

The PPS estimated that the number of martyrs' bodies from Gaza being held by "Israel" is in the hundreds, though the Israeli occupation entity has yet to release official figures.

According to the statement, the total number of withheld bodies stands at 552 in the so-called "Cemeteries of Numbers" and refrigerated morgues. Among them are nine women, 32 prisoners, 55 children under the age of 18, five Palestinians from '48 occupied Palestinian territories, and six from Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

The "Cemeteries of Numbers" are cemeteries classified by numbers rather than names, where bodies of martyrs are withheld to avoid autopsies that would expose Israeli crimes.

The Israeli occupation is violating international law by withholding the bodies of murdered #Palestinians and keeping them in cemeteries classified by numbers rather than their own names. #Palestine pic.twitter.com/b9Ye4zhBl9

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) February 23, 2022

The statement also noted that "Israel" has intensified its arrest campaigns in the West Bank in parallel with its ongoing aggression on Gaza.

Skeletons, decomposed; 'Israel' returns bodies of 89 Gaza martyrs 

Earlier this month, the Israeli occupation military returned the bodies of 89 Palestinian martyrs it abducted amid the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, confirmed the Gaza Government Media Office, emphasizing that the occupation forces delivered the remains of the martyrs as skeletons and decomposed bodies.

In a statement, the Media Office explained that the occupation delivered the bodies of these martyrs in only 35 shrouds, with 13 bodies placed in one shroud, 22 bodies in another, and the remaining martyrs' remains scattered in several other shrouds.

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According to the statement, the Israeli occupation forces, throughout 304 days of the genocide, abducted more than 2,000 bodies of martyrs and deceased Palestinians from dozens of cemeteries in the Gaza Strip provinces, which they bulldozed and destroyed with military machinery.

At the time, Civil Defense Director Yamen Abu Suleiman told AFP that Israeli occupation authorities did not provide any information about the bodies, including their names or where they were found or taken from.

"We do not know if they are martyrs [killed in Gaza] or prisoners from [Israel's] jails", he added.

The Media Office recalled that the Israeli occupation repeated this crime multiple times during the genocide, including previously exhuming graves in Khan Younis, Jabalia, and the al-Tuffah neighborhood, and abducting some martyrs' bodies.

The statement confirmed that the Israeli occupation is still withholding dozens of bodies, highlighting that the transfer of bodies to unknown locations and mutilating them is considered a war crime and a crime against humanity, punishable by international law.

The Gaza Government Media Office called on international and UN organizations to condemn these brutal and heinous crimes.

It pointed out that the recent crime against humanity adds to a series of crimes committed by the Israeli occupation military after being given the green light by the United States to kill civilians, children, and women.

The Media Office said it holds the Israeli occupation and the US administration fully responsible for these crimes and demands the formation of an entirely independent international investigative committee to probe the occupation army's abduction of the martyrs' bodies and the theft of their vital organs.

"Israel" has a history of abducting the bodies of Palestinian martyrs and deceased during its ongoing war on the Gaza Strip. 

After stealing organs from some of them, the Israeli occupation handed over in late January the bodies of 100 martyrs that were stolen from hospitals and cemeteries in the Gaza Strip.

In late December, the Government Media Office in Gaza revealed that the Israeli occupation forces handed over the mutilated bodies of 80 martyrs after stealing their organs.

Hamas said "Israel's" delivery of bodies without identities "exacerbates the suffering of the families of martyrs and the missing, who seek to know the fate of their abducted children or to bury their martyrs in a dignified manner."

The bodies were later buried at the Turkish cemetery, near Khan Younis, the main city in the southern part of Gaza, AFP journalists reported.

Read more: Israeli organ trafficking ring busted in Turkiye's Adana