DayofPal—Israeli authorities are withholding the bodies of at least 766 identified Palestinians, nearly half of whom have been held since October 2023, according to a report by Haaretz.
Most of the Palestinians whose bodies are being withheld were killed by Israeli forces. Among them are 88 prisoners who died in Israeli custody over the past two years, including 53 detainees from Gaza, 32 from the occupied West Bank, and three Palestinian citizens of 1948 occupied territories.
Many were held without charge or trial, with their deaths attributed to attacks by Israeli officers or harsh detention conditions.
The report comes despite Hamas having returned the bodies of all Israeli captives.
Haaretz reported that 373 of the bodies came into Israel’s possession after the 7 October 2023 attacks.
An additional seven bodies belong to prisoners who died prior to Israel’s war on Gaza, according to the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC).
The centre also warned that an unknown number of Palestinian bodies killed in 1967 and subsequent years remain withheld and buried inside Israel. In addition, Israel is holding the bodies of 10 identified foreign nationals.
According to the report, 520 of the bodies are stored in military morgues, while around 256 are buried in “cemeteries of numbers”, where graves are marked only with numerical identifiers. Some of these graves date back to 1948.
Israel has long maintained a policy of withholding Palestinian bodies, a practice that has drawn repeated condemnation from human rights organisations.
Many Palestinian families had hoped the October agreement between Israel and Hamas would lead to the return of all bodies, but only 360 Palestinian bodies were released to Gaza.
JLAC said only around 100 of those bodies were identified, while the rest were buried as unknown individuals.
Palestinian officials said some of the returned bodies showed signs of torture, execution and severe abuse, including broken bones, strangulation marks, mutilation and missing limbs.
While Israeli law permits the retention of Palestinian bodies under a 2018 amendment to the Counterterrorism Law, international humanitarian law prohibits the practice.
The Fourth Geneva Convention requires that the dead be treated with dignity, honourably buried, and that graves be properly marked and respected.
Human rights groups continue to call for the immediate release of all withheld bodies and their return to families.
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