BEIRUT: The Israeli Army has announced in the last week that it collected the bodies of several Hizbullah fighters killed in South Lebanon, a claim denied by Hizbullah officials.
Media reports circulated with photos of Israeli troops carrying body bags of what they claimed were bodies of Hizbullah fighters killed in combat in Bint Jbeil and Maroun al-Ras after Israel's invasion of those areas.
"We are currently occupied with collecting evidence, bodies of Hizbullah terrorists, and various testimonies, while preparing for the next stage," Lieutenant Colonel Itzik Ronen of the Armored Corps' Division 7 said in the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot earlier this week.
IDF sources said they are storing the bodies of six dead Hizbullah fighters in refrigerated containers for use in a possible prisoner swap.
In January of 2004, through German mediation efforts, Israel swapped 430 Arab prisoners, most of them Palestinians, and the bodies of 60 Lebanese soldiers for the bodies of three dead Israeli soldiers and a kidnapped Israeli businessman, Elhanan Tennenbaum.
A Hizbullah official told The Daily Star that "Israel is searching for any form of victory after their great defeat."
When questioned about photos showing Israeli soldiers carrying body bags, the official said it "doesn't mean much."
"Israel declared earlier that it arrested two Hizbullah fighters, and then later on it turned out they were regular civilians and were released," he said.
Israel has special cemeteries for Palestinian and Lebanese fighters killed in fighting with the Jewish state.
Witnesses in the South haven't been able to confirm that the body-bag photos are of Hizbullah fighters but have confirmed that body bags were carried off by Israeli soldiers. According to the Human Rights Watch, international humanitarian law requires that "the dead be disposed of in a respectful manner and graves respected and properly maintained."
Parties involved in the conflict must "facilitate" the return of the remains upon request of the party to which they belong or to their relatives," said HWR.
In article 34 of Additional Protocol I, which outlines that as soon as circumstances and the relations between the conflicting parties permit, there should be agreement to "facilitate the return of the remains of the deceased and of personal effects to the home country upon its request or, unless that country objects, upon the request of the next of kin."
Prompt burial of bodies is integral to both the Jewish and Muslim faiths, but the belief has been overstepped with bodies turning into bargaining chips.
By Rym Ghazal