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 neighbourhood 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.
