The number of Palestinians killed since the start of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 has risen to 41,495 and those injured to 96,006, confirmed the Ministry of Health in Gaza, on the 355th day of the aggression.

In its daily report, the ministry highlighted that the Israeli occupation forces committed four massacres, killing 28 Palestinians and injuring 85 others in the past 24 hours.

The Ministry reminded that a number of victims remain trapped under the rubble and on the streets, with ambulance and civil defense teams unable to reach them.

Al Mayadeen's correspondent reported on Wednesday that five people were killed and several were injured in an Israeli airstrike targeting a house in the al-Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip.

According to our correspondent, the Israeli occupation artillery heavily shelled the area east of the Abu Ataya roundabout, east of the al-Bureij camp.

He added that Israeli aircraft launched an airstrike north of al-Nuseirat in central Gaza.

Artillery shelling is occurring alongside sporadic gunfire from occupation forces' vehicles east of al-Fukhari town, southeast of Khan Younis, our correspondent mentioned.

Elsewhere, he said that the occupation forces leveled residential buildings to the ground in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood, southeast of Gaza City.

Gaza hospitals suspend procedures for receiving 88 bodies

In a related context, hospitals in the Gaza Strip announced the suspension of procedures for receiving the remains of 88 individuals, the WAFA news agency reported.

They explained in a statement that the bodies were transferred from the Israeli occupation without any accompanying data or information identifying the deceased or the locations from which they were recovered.

As a result, according to the statement, the process of receiving the bodies has been halted until all necessary information is obtained, enabling families to properly identify them.

The hospitals called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to fulfill its obligations under international protocols regarding the handling and transfer of bodies, ensuring that relevant data and details are provided for each case.

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They also emphasized the importance of receiving the remains in accordance with humanitarian and international standards, ensuring the dignity and rights of the deceased are upheld.

Skeletons, decomposed

In early August, the Gaza Government Media Office confirmed that the Israeli occupation military returned the bodies of 89 Palestinian martyrs it abducted amid the ongoing war on the Gaza Strip, 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.

According to the statement, the Israeli occupation forces, throughout 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.

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.

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