The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday that Israel had returned the bodies of 80 Palestinians killed in the Israeli-Hamas confrontation in Gaza.
Israel claimed it was returning the bodies after ascertaining that they were not Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7.
The bodies were buried, according to the ministry, and information was documented to aid in eventual identification. Gaza authorities were attempting to determine when and where the men were slain, as well as who they were.
Despite global pleas for a truce in the 11-week-old war, Israel’s government insists the goal of its attack in Gaza is to eliminate Hamas. Hamas militants killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 captives on October 7.
According to an Israeli military official, remains were transferred to Israel for an identification procedure as part of our effort to locate the hostages and the missing persons during the war.
“The difficulties in identifying those murdered make it necessary to transfer those bodies to Israel for forensic identification, and that it was in line with routine analysis that complies with internationally accepted forensic standards to rule out their identification as Israeli hostages”, the official continued.
The health ministry stated that Israel handed over the bodies through the Kerem Shalom border crossing.
The dead had been retrieved from the northern part of the Gaza Strip, according to the Islamic Waqf, or religious affairs ministry. Such a significant number of bodies being returned is unusual.
They were buried in a long trench at a Rafah cemetery in the enclave’s south on Tuesday.
“Pictures are being taken to identify them later”, stated a spokesman of the Gaza Islamic Waqf.
According to the Palestinian health authorities, about 21,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes, with thousands more believed to be buried beneath rubble. Almost all of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents had been evicted many times.
Israel claims it is doing all possible to safeguard civilians, and accuses Hamas of putting them in danger by operating among them, which Hamas denies.
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