ShareGAZA: The Gaza health ministry on Thursday said it holds the Zionist occupation fully responsible for the “inhumane” treatment of the bodies of Palestinians in a decomposing state on Wednesday. The Zionist entity had deposited the bodies of 88 people in a container without information on their identity. The ministry refused to bury the bodies Wednesday until the Zionist entity provided information on their identities.
It said the Zionist act was a breach of the dead’s dignity and their families’ right to know the fate of their loved ones. A day later, health authorities accepted the bodies, after they were kept in the container overnight but criticized the Zionist forces for “digging up and stealing” them from graves and keeping them in “immoral and illegal conditions”.
The Zionist entity has regularly taken dead bodies out of Gaza to determine whether they are hostages seized during Hamas’s October 7 attack. The Zionist army rejected the ministry’s accusation, saying its policy was to treat the bodies of the deceased “with dignity and respect”. “The hostage identification process, conducted at a secure and alternative location, ensures optimal professional conditions and respect for the deceased,” the army statement said. “Bodies determined not be those of hostages are returned with dignity and respect.”
An AFP photographer saw a crowd gathered around the bodies on Thursday as they were unloaded from a truck, wrapped in blue tarp. Hisham Mhanna, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said it was not involved in the transfer of 88 bodies to Khan Yunis in southern Gaza because they did not have proper documentation.
“The Red Cross declined to participate in the reception of the bodies because it did not comply with the applicable protocols. There are no data, lists, or evidence identifying these bodies, and we have no information about them whatsoever,” Mhanna said. “We emphasize the right of all families to receive information about their relatives and loved ones and to carry out burial ceremonies in a manner that respects human dignity.” — Agencies
