The institutions highlighted that “the number of bodies being held has reached 552 people in the cemeteries of numbers and refrigerators.”
The Prisoners’ Institutions and the National Campaign to Recover the Bodies of Martyrs reported on Tuesday that Israeli occupation authorities continue to hold 552 bodies, including 256 in the so-called cemeteries of numbers, along with hundreds from the Gaza Strip.
This information was released in a joint statement by the Palestine Prisoners Society (PPS), the Detainees and Ex-Detainees Commission, the Damir Foundation for Human Rights, and the National Campaign to Recover the Bodies of Martyrs, coinciding with the National Day for Recovering Bodies, observed annually on August 27.
The institutions highlighted that “the number of bodies being held has reached 552 people in the cemeteries of numbers and refrigerators, including 256 in the cemeteries of numbers, including 296 since the return of the detention policy in 2015.”
They also noted that the detained bodies included 9 women, 32 prisoners, 55 children under the age of 18, 5 individuals from the 1948 territories, and six Palestinian refugees from Lebanon.
‘I Feel He is Cold’: Israel’s Inhumane Practice of Withholding Palestinian Bodies
The statement further mentioned that “since the start of the Israeli aggression on October 7, the occupation has escalated the detention of bodies, as it is holding 149 bodies, and this number constitutes more than half of the people detained since 2015, noting that this data does not include the martyrs detained from the Gaza Strip.”
Additionally, the statement added, “the number of people detained from Gaza by the occupation is estimated at hundreds, but there is no official statement from the occupation about the actual number of bodies of martyrs from Gaza to date.”
Meanwhile, dozens of civilians and families of those whose bodies are being held by the Israeli occupation took part in protests today in the governorates of Ramallah, Jenin, and Nablus, demanding that Israeli authorities return the withheld bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces.
Ongoing Genocide
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 40,476 Palestinians have been killed, and 93,647 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.
(PC, WAFA)
