GAZA, (PIC)
The admission by the Israeli occupation authorities that they are holding the body of a Palestinian detainee from the Gaza Strip who was martyred during his detention has once again brought the file of body withholding and enforced disappearance into the spotlight, amid human rights accusations against Israel of using the bodies of Palestinians as a political pressure and bargaining chip, and depriving their families of knowing the fate of their children or burying them with dignity.
A report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed that the army is keeping the body of a detainee who died in one of the detention centers near the Beit Hanoun, Erez crossing, while the director of the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Ramy Abdu, confirmed that this admission is not new, but rather represents a delayed acknowledgment of a policy documented by human rights organizations since the first months of the Israeli war on Gaza.
Abdu explained that the Monitor documented the withholding of the bodies of Palestinians who have been martyred since 7 October 2023, in addition to exhuming bodies from graves and withholding them, noting that hundreds of families still do not know the fate of their children, and do not know whether they were martyred under the rubble, inside prisons, or if their bodies are still being held.
He added that the Israeli practice of keeping the bodies is not limited to the humanitarian aspect, but extends to using them in negotiations related to the file of prisoners and missing persons, which he considered a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, which oblige the parties to the conflict to respect the bodies of the dead and hand them over to their families without delay or bargaining.
The Euro-Mediterranean Monitor considered that turning bodies into bargaining chips amounts to a form of hostage-taking, emphasizing that Israel does not only deprive the Palestinian of his life, but this extends to depriving his family of knowing his fate, recovering his body, and burying him according to religious and humanitarian rituals.
For his part, human rights activist Hisham Al-Sharbati confirmed that the withholding of bodies comes within a broader policy based on enforced disappearance, especially against detainees from the Gaza Strip, explaining that Israel refrains from disclosing the fate of large numbers of detainees, and does not allow communication with them, their lawyers, or the International Committee of the Red Cross.
He pointed out that ambiguity still surrounds the fate of many Gaza detainees, in light of reports of the death of some of them as a result of torture, medical negligence, or starvation inside detention centers.
Human rights defenders believe that the continuation of withholding Palestinian bodies raises questions about trying to obliterate evidence related to the causes of death, especially in light of the documentation of traces of torture and maltreatment on a number of bodies that were handed over during the past months.
The Euro-Mediterranean Monitor called for enabling the International Committee of the Red Cross and independent human rights organizations to access detention centers, records of detainees, and bodies, and establishing an independent international mechanism to investigate the fate of the missing persons and detainees who died during their detention, stressing that withholding bodies and hiding the fate of detainees represent grave violations that may amount to crimes requiring international criminal accountability.