Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis announced on Friday that it received the bodies of 30 Palestinians handed over by Israel through the International Red Cross (ICRC), bringing the total number of bodies received since October 14 to 225 under the ceasefire agreement, Anadolu reports.
The hospital said in a statement that “today it received 30 bodies of Palestinian martyrs handed over by the Israeli occupation to the International Red Cross,” without further details.
Gaza’s health ministry said earlier that many of the bodies handed over by Israel bore signs of abuse, including beatings, tied hands, blindfolds and facial deformities, and were returned without names.
The handover of the bodies is part of the first phase of the ceasefire that came into effect on October 10. The deal includes a prisoner and body swap between Israel and Hamas, brokered by Egypt, Qatar and Turkey, and overseen by the US.
Families are identifying the remains of their loved ones, brought back from Israel without names, by physical features or clothing, as forensic facilities in Gaza remain out of commission due to Israel’s blockade and destruction of laboratories.
The hospital did not say whether the newly received bodies had names or signs of torture, and details are expected in the coming hours.
Before the ceasefire, Israel held 735 Palestinian bodies in the so-called “graveyards of numbers,” according to the Palestinian National Campaign to Recover the Bodies of the Martyrs and Discover the Fate of the Missing.
The campaign also cited a July 16, 2024 Haaretz report revealing that the Israeli military kept around 1,500 bodies of Palestinians from Gaza at the infamous Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel.
(Vijesti.ba)
