The government media office in Gaza says Israel has “stolen” 2,000 bodies since October 7 and sent some in an “inhumane manner.”
Israel has returned the bodies of nearly 90 Palestinians killed during its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian health ministry announced.
Yamen Abu Suleiman, director of the Palestinian Emergency Civil Service in Khan Younis, 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 were tortured and killed.”
“The occupation did not provide us with any information about names, ages or anything. This is a war crime, a crime against humanity,” Abu Suleiman said.
He said the bodies would be examined to try to determine the cause of death and identify them, before being buried in a mass grave in a cemetery near Nasser hospital in Khan Younis.
The Gaza government’s media office said Israel had sent 89 bodies as “bones and inhumanly decomposed bodies.”
He said Israeli forces had “stolen” 2,000 bodies since October 7 from dozens of cemeteries, which they have bulldozed during their ongoing military offensive.
The office added that Israeli forces had also previously dug up graves in Khan Younis, Jabalia and the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza, and transferred the bodies to “unknown locations,” an action amounting to a war crime and a crime against humanity.
Israeli forces continue to hold dozens of bodies.
Hamas said in a statement that the bodies were handed over in “a state of complete decomposition, with no possibility of determining their identity.”
“This highlights the sadism of the (Israeli) occupation and the level of criminality committed by the Nazi occupation army, which is unprecedented in human history,” he said.
The Israeli military has not commented on the return of the bodies. Israel has previously said it returned the bodies after verifying that they were not Israeli hostages held by Hamas since the October 7 attack on Israel.
No ceasefire agreement
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 agreement with Hamas.
“Why return the bodies outside the framework of a comprehensive agreement? Such an agreement would allow the hostages to be returned alive for rehabilitation and allow the deceased to receive a decent burial,” the organization said in a statement.
Rising regional tensions are adding to the despair of families and friends of the remaining 111 captives, 39 of whom died, taken in the October 7 attack.
Critics say Netanyahu, who is facing trial on corruption charges, would rather prolong the conflict than strike a deal that could upset his hard-line coalition partners and oust him from power.