Gaza sets up committee to accept bodies of Palestinians killed by Israel

The Palestinian Ministry of Health has held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the inhumane and unethical treatment of the corpses of Palestinians it has killed that were exhumed from graves and stolen and announced the formation of a committee to deal with such cases, the Palestinian Information Centre reported.

This comes after Israel delivered the bodies of 88 Palestinians to the Gaza Strip yesterday, however they were said to have decomposed so much that they would not be identified, while occupation authority did not provide the names or any details of who the bodies belong to. As a result, the Palestinian Ministry of Health refused to accept the bodies and sent them back to Israel.

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MEMO journalist in Gaza, Mosatem A. Dalloul, said it is the fifth time Israel has provided bodies in this way, with a mix of bodies in each bag, some at an advanced stage of decomposition. This makes the bodies very difficult to identify and potentially obscures the real number of deaths.

The Ministry of Health reported the formation of a committee involving relevant parties to receive the corpses and prepare them for burial. It called on international bodies to play their role and pressure Israel to deal with these matters according to recognised standards and protocols.

Under international humanitarian law, individuals who lose their lives during armed conflict must be treated in a way that preserves their dignity, and their remains must be managed correctly and appropriately. The law also requires that searches are allowed in order that they do not remain missing.

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