Burying more than 80 decomposed bodies that the occupation had held during its war on Gaza

The Israeli occupation forces, in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, released the bodies of more than 80 martyrs that they had detained during the war on the Gaza Strip, and buried them in a mass grave in the city of Khan Yunis.

Al Jazeera's correspondent reported that the bodies of the martyrs arrived decomposed, and their identities were not known, and the Palestinian medical staff did not have the capabilities to conduct the necessary tests to identify their owners.

For its part, the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) said that the occupation's delivery of the bodies of the martyrs in a state of complete decomposition, and without any ability to determine their identities, highlights the sadism of the occupation, and the level of the unprecedented crime in human history committed by the Nazi occupation army, according to the movement's description.

Hamas added that “these heinous violations come within the framework of the brutal war of extermination and the attempts of the fascist occupation government to destroy and frustrate the means of life in the Gaza Strip.”

She also said that these violations “double the suffering of the families of martyrs and missing persons who seek to know the fate of their kidnapped sons, or to bury their martyrs in a manner befitting them; which requires the international community to take a clear position rejecting and denouncing them, and to work to hold the leaders of the occupation accountable for these inhumane and heinous practices.”

Demands for an investigation committee

In turn, the Government Media Office in Gaza called for the formation of a completely independent international committee to investigate the kidnapping of the bodies of martyrs by the occupation army and the theft of their vital organs.

The media office said in a statement that the occupation handed over the bodies of 89 martyrs that it had stolen earlier, and explained that the occupation handed over the bodies while they were decomposed and showed the skeletons, in a violation of the dignity and humanity of the martyrs.

The government media office explained that since the beginning of the war, the occupation has kidnapped more than two thousand bodies of martyrs and dead people, which it stole after bulldozing dozens of graves and exhuming graves in different areas of the Gaza Strip, in a scene that is contrary to humanity and human feelings.

The media office also said that the occupation is still holding dozens of bodies, and called on international and UN organizations to condemn these brutal and hideous crimes.

This is not the first time that the Palestinian side has received the bodies of Palestinians that were being held by Israel. The government media office in Gaza previously accused Israel of stealing organs from returned bodies, without any Israeli response to that.

On July 16, the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz reported that the Israeli army had been holding the bodies of 1,500 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in the Sde Teiman detention center since October 7.