Israel’s military faces serious allegations of organ theft from the deceased in Gaza, as asserted by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. The NGO, advocating for an independent international investigation, voiced concerns over potential organ theft from Palestinian corpses, citing reports from Gaza-based medical professionals who examined bodies released by Israel.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor contends that it has documented instances of Israeli forces taking possession of numerous dead bodies from al-Shifa and Indonesian hospitals in northern Gaza, as well as other locations in the south. According to the NGO, medical professionals found missing vital organs, including livers, kidneys, hearts, cochleas, and corneas, terming it “evidence” of potential organ theft. Additionally, they claim that Israel exhumed and confiscated corpses from a mass grave at al-Shifa.
The Israeli Defence Force has not yet responded to these allegations.
Israel has previously denied accusations of harvesting organs from deceased Palestinians without family consent, dismissing such claims as “antisemitic.” Euro-Med asserts that forensic medical examination alone cannot conclusively prove or disprove organ theft due to surgeries performed on multiple bodies before death. They argue that the intense Israeli attacks on Gaza hinder a full examination of recovered corpses, further exacerbated by the collapse of the enclave’s health system, making it impossible for Palestinian health officials to accurately count the dead.
Israel’s Accusations of Organ Harvesting
Reports in recent years have circulated accusing Israel of unlawfully using Palestinian corpses for organ harvesting. Israeli doctor Meira Weiss, in her book “Over Their Dead Bodies,” claimed that organs were taken from deceased Palestinians between 1996 and 2002 for medical research at Israeli universities and transplants into Israeli patients.
Jewish teachings, emphasising the paramount need to save lives, permit organ transplantation and harvesting. A controversial Israeli television investigation in 2014 included confessions from high-ranking officials about the use of skin from the bodies of dead Palestinians and African workers for medical treatment of Israelis, including soldiers with burn injuries.
Israel has been implicated as a major hub for the illegal global trade in human organs, according to a 2008 investigation by CNN. Euro-Med Monitor accuses Israel of being one of the “world’s biggest hubs for the illegal trade of human organs under the pretext of ‘security deterrence.'”
The NGO calls on Israel to adhere to “international law” and emphasises the importance of respecting and protecting the bodies of the deceased during armed conflicts, as outlined in the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel has not ratified.
Euro-Med Monitor also accuses Israel of holding the remains of dozens of Palestinians killed in its military operation in Gaza since October 7, potentially as a punitive practice to deny families the opportunity to bury their loved ones. The NGO claims that Israel holds the remains of at least 145 Palestinians in its mortuaries and around 255 in its “Numbers Cemetery,” a site near the Jordanian border inaccessible to the public. Refusing to release the bodies for burial may be viewed as collective punishment, prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and contradicts the fundamental religious duty in Islam to bury the dead with cultural and spiritual significance.
