Days of Palestine – Jerusalem

Israeli occupation forces are scheduled to release the body of the slain young woman, Mai Afana, on Tuesday at 5:00 pm (local time) at the Al-Za’im checkpoint near Occupied Jerusalem.

Afana was shot dead by Israeli forces on June 16, 2021, while driving by the Hizma military checkpoint in the occupied city.

Afana worked as a lecturer at the Al-Istiqlal University before being gunned down while on her way back home from work.

The occupation hands over the body of the Jerusalemite martyr Mai Afana at Al-Zaeem checkpoint, these moments as her body was held since June 16 last year. pic.twitter.com/Elue3xpQ2o

— AlQastal News (@QastalNewsEn) August 23, 2022

Israeli occupation continues to violate the Palestinians’ rights even after being killed as they detain the bodies of the martyrs as a means of exerting pressure on their families – and subjecting the Palestinian people to the measures of occupation.

Not only does the Israeli occupation arrest the bodies of the Palestinians who were killed, but in most cases, they are going to demolish their homes, and arrest their families, moreover they are also attacking their mourning procession, as happened a few days ago at the funeral of the slain Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh.

The Israeli occupation forces are still holding the bodies of 105 Palestinian martyrs in refrigerators, in addition to 256 martyrs in the Numbers cemetery, including 9 children, 3 martyrs, and 8 prisoners who have spent various periods in the prisons of the occupation, according to the Ministry of Information.

In a report published by the Ministry in April 2022, they confirmed that the number of the bodies of the martyrs detained since the beginning of this year, according to data from the national campaign to recover the bodies of the martyrs, reached 13.

“The detention of the bodies – which constitute “premeditated killings of Palestinian citizens”, and are “crimes of extrajudicial execution “- in the graves of numbers and refrigerators of the occupation constitutes” an affront to the human dignity after his death, as well as collective punishment and is contrary to the principles of international humanitarian law and relevant international norms,” the Ministry stressed.

The Ministry stated that the Israeli occupation used the detention as a means of blackmailing the families of the martyrs, who were living in anxiety, fear, and anticipation for the fate of their sons, with the hope of meeting the latter even to say Goodbye.