Israeli occupation authorities have returned the bodies of over 80 Palestinians killed during the Gaza war, in coordination with the International Red Cross (ICRC). The corpses were handed over to the Ministry of Health in Gaza and subsequently buried in a mass grave in Khan Yunis, where a ceremony was held.
Sources indicate that the bodies were in various stages of decomposition. Most bore numbers rather than names, rendering them unidentifiable.
Currently, approximately 10,000 Palestinians are missing from Gaza, including those forcibly disappeared by Israel and bodies exhumed from cemeteries across the enclave.
Due to the extensive bombing campaign by occupation forces, Gaza’s medical facilities are severely limited, preventing DNA tests from being conducted on the returned bodies to ascertain their identities.
A report published last week by the UN Human Rights Office revealed that 53 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons and facilities since the Gaza war began last October, including 36 at the notorious Sde Teiman facility in southern Israel.