Palestinians Held A Mass Funeral For 54 Palestinians Israel Returned Unidentifiable Due To Extreme Torture
Israel handed over the bodies without name tags or identification and said it wasn’t responsible for identifying the Palestinians.
Palestinians in Gaza held a mass funeral for 54 unidentified Palestinians whose bodies were returned by Israel as part of a ceasefire agreement.
The 54 were buried in a mass grave in Deir al-Balah on Oct. 22 as their bodies were unable to be identified due to severe torture and mutilations.
Israel had handed over the bodies without name tags or identification, only numbers written on body bags.
Israeli military officials said they were not responsible for identifying which remains were sent back or providing identification details.
Palestinian civil defense spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said the bodies appeared blindfolded and showed signs of torture, burns, fractures and wounds.
The examination of the bodies also showed direct gunfire from very close range, indicating deliberate field executions, hands and feet tied with plastic restraints before being killed, blindfolded eyes and features indicating the victims were arrested before execution and signs the bodies were crushed under the tracks of tanks, according to Gaza’s media office.
The Israeli military said that it “operates strictly in accordance with international law” and denied that Palestinians returned were tortured.
Footage from Nasser Hospital showed the bodies in white bags placed on the ground as people gathered to conduct prayers for them.
Relatives of missing Palestinians also attended the funeral, while expressing frustrations of not being able to know if they have buried their loved ones or not.
Hamas has handed over all 20 living Israeli captives on Oct.13, and in exchange, Israel released more than 1,700 Palestinians it detained without charges after Oct. 7, 2023, as well as 250 Palestinians who were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
According to the ceasefire deal, Hamas is also expected to return the bodies of the remaining 28 hostages.
For each dead Israeli hostage, Israel will release the bodies of 15 dead Palestinians.
Hamas has since returned the remains of 15 Israeli hostages, while Israel returned 195 Palestinian bodies in exchange.
Gaza’s health ministry has only been able to identify only 64 bodies of those returned by Israel.
Cherry Mohamed
Cherry Mohamed
Kassy Cho
