With signs of torture, mutilation, and beheadings…the bodies of 38 unidentified Palestinians were buried in Gaza | news

Yesterday, Monday, the competent Palestinian authorities in Gaza buried the bodies of 38 unidentified Palestinians in the city of Deir al-Balah in the center of the Strip, which Israel had returned during the past few days through the International Committee of the Red Cross.

This brings the number of unidentified bodies that were buried after they could not be identified to 182, according to a statement by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Civil Defense crews, along with teams from the Ministry of Health and Endowments, in addition to a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross, participated in the burial and funeral of the 38 bodies.

Muhammad Abu Shamala, Deputy Director of Civil Defense in the Central Governorate, said, “The bodies were previously transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip, where they remained for several days, and their photos and numbers were published in the hope that the families would recognize them.”

Beheadings and mutilation

Abu Shamala pointed out that “none of the bodies were identified due to the long period of time since their detention and the mutilation and severe torture they were subjected to.”

He pointed out that “some of them bore traces of shells and tanks, severed heads, and complete distortion of their facial features, which made identifying them extremely difficult.”

Abu Shamala explained, “Most of the bodies had traces of handcuffs and legs, and clear signs of hanging, and some of them still had the rope around their necks until the moment of burial.”

He said that “the bodies were buried in a manner befitting their dignity, despite the difficult circumstances we are living in.”

The Palestinian Ministry of Health indicated that only 91 bodies were identified out of 315 bodies handed over by Israel.

Palestinian families identify the bodies of their children by what remains of distinctive marks on their bodies or by the clothes they were wearing before they went missing, amid the absence of testing devices due to the Israeli siege and the destruction of laboratories in Gaza.

Before the ceasefire took effect, Israel was detaining 735 Palestinian bodies, according to data from the “Palestinian National Campaign to Recover the Bodies of the Martyrs and Reveal the Fate of the Missing.”

The campaign referred to a report published by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on July 16, stating that the Israeli army is holding about 1,500 bodies of Palestinians from Gaza in the notorious Sde Teman camp, in addition to those bodies, without indicating the date of their detention.

Palestinian human rights centers reported that a number of Gaza Strip prisoners who were arrested by Israel during the two years of genocide that began on October 8, 2023, died under torture.

The Israeli genocide left more than 69,000 martyrs, more than 170,000 wounded, and destruction that affected 90% of the civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.