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07-08-2024
JERUSALEM: Israel has returned the bodies of nearly 90 Palestinians killed in its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Ministry of Health has said.
Yamen Abu Suleiman, the director of the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said on Monday that it was unclear whether the bodies had been dug up from cemeteries by the army during the ground offensive, or whether they were “detainees who had been tortured and killed”.
“The occupation provided us with no information about the names, or ages, or anything. This is a war crime, a crime against humanity,” Abu Suleiman said.
He said the bodies would be examined in an attempt to determine the causes of death and to identify them, before being buried in a mass grave at a cemetery near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said Israel had sent 89 bodies as “bones and decomposed bodies in an inhumane manner”.
It said Israeli forces had “stolen” 2,000 bodies since October 7 from dozens of cemeteries, which they bulldozed during their ongoing military offensive.
The office added that Israeli forces also previously dug up graves in Khan Younis, Jabalia and the Tuffah neighborhood in Gaza City, and transferred the bodies to “unknown places”, an action amounting to a war crime and a crime against humanity.
It said Israeli forces continue to hold dozens of bodies.
Hamas said in a statement the bodies were handed over in “a state of complete decomposition, without any ability to determine their identities”.
“It highlights the sadism of the [Israeli] occupation and the level of crime committed by the Nazi occupation army, which is unprecedented in human history,” it said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the return of the bodies. In the past, Israel has said it returned bodies after checks that they were not Israeli hostages who had been held by Hamas since the October 7 attack on Israel.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli Hostages and Missing Families Forum asked why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would allow the handover of Palestinian bodies without a ceasefire deal with Hamas.
“Why are bodies being returned outside the framework of a comprehensive deal? Such an agreement could bring back living hostages for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial,” the group said in a statement.
Rocketing regional tensions are increasing the desperation of families and friends of the remaining 111 captives, including 39 known to be dead, taken during the October 7 attack.
Critics say Netanyahu, who is facing a corruption trial, prefers to prolong the conflict rather than agree a deal that could upset his hardline coalition partners and tip him out of office.
Gaza’s Civil Defence agency says it received the bodies of 80 unidentified Palestinians from Israel and buried them in a mass grave.
The Israeli military has killed at least 40 people and injured 71 others in the Gaza Strip during the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani says Tehran is not looking to escalate regional tensions but believes “punishing Israel is necessary” to prevent further instability. At least 39,623 people were killed and 91,469 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 and more than 200 were taken captive.
Dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military attacks across Gaza, including five police members in a targeted air strike.
Two rockets were launched at the Ain al-Assad base housing US troops in Iraq, with multiple US personnel wounded. (Int’l News Desk)
