Bodies of Palestinians are brought to the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital following an Israeli attack at Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City, Gaza on November 12, 2024 [Mahmoud İsleem/Anadolu Agency]
Bodies of Palestinians are brought to the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital following an Israeli attack at Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City, Gaza on November 12, 2024 [Mahmoud İsleem/Anadolu Agency]
The Israeli occupation is currently holding the bodies of 676 Palestinians in “cemeteries of numbers” and refrigerators, according to the National Campaign for the Retrieval of Palestinian War Victims’ Bodies.
In a statement released yesterday, the campaign reported that Israeli occupation authorities are still withholding the bodies of three Palestinians killed early Tuesday morning in Jenin.
This brings the total number of Palestinian bodies being held in these facilities to 676, including the remains of 71 detainees, 60 children and nine women.
The so-called “Cemeteries of Numbers” are unmarked graves bordered with stones, each bearing a metal plate with a number instead of the deceased’s name. The numbers correspond to individual files kept by Israeli security authorities
In September 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that military commanders could temporarily withhold Palestinian bodies killed by Israeli occupation forces for potential use as “bargaining chips” in future negotiations.
The National Campaign also revealed that some of the bodies date back to the 1960s and 1970s. However, the campaign’s data does not include bodies withheld from the Gaza Strip due to a lack of accurate information, though it did document the return of 325 bodies from Gaza by Israeli occupation authorities.
Since 7 October 2023, at least 48,380 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza. A ceasefire agreement has been in place in Gaza since 19 January, halting the Israeli bombing campaign that has caused widespread destruction and left the Palestinian enclave in ruins.
Israel has since launched attacks on the occupied West Bank where it has killed more than 60 Palestinians and forcibly displaced over 40,000.
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