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

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al Mayadeen English
5 Aug 2024 23:43
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Gaza Civil Defense director says the Israeli occupation authorities did not provide any information about the bodies, including their names or where they were found or taken from.

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Men bury bodies that were taken and later released by "Israel" during a mass funeral at a cemetery in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 5, 2024. (AFP)

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 on Monday, 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 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.

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.

In a statement released Monday, 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.