The Israeli army has returned the bodies of 84 Palestinians which had been stolen from cemeteries in the Gaza Strip.
The bodies were buried at the Turkish cemetery in the Austrian neighborhood southwest of Khan Yunis in the south, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
They were reportedly returned via the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) crossing on Monday.
WAFA said this was the third group of bodies that the occupation forces handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross during its ongoing aggression on the besieged enclave.
‘Heinous Violations’
Hamas said the return of the bodies “in a state of complete decomposition, with no ability to identify them, highlights the sadism of the occupation and the unprecedented level of crime in human history committed by the Nazi occupation army.”
The movement said “they kill unarmed civilians in hospitals and shelters, kidnap their bodies, and exhume graves of martyrs and the dead, transferring them to occupation centers.”
It stressed that “these heinous violations” were a part of “the brutal genocide and attempts by the fascist occupation government to destroy and thwart ways of life in Gaza through its ongoing sadistic crimes.”
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Hamas said this doubles the suffering of the families of the deceased and the missing who seek to know the fate of their kidnapped children or bury their dead in a manner befitting them.
“This necessitates a clear stance from the international community to reject and condemn these actions and to work on holding the occupation leaders accountable for these heinous inhumane practices,” the movement said.
Over 39,000 Killed
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, 39,624 Palestinians have been killed, and 91,469 wounded in the past eight months.
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’.
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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)
” Blood Libel “