Burying the bodies of dozens of Palestinian prisoners in a mass grave in Deir al-Balah | news

The Government Information Office in the Gaza Strip said that ten of the bodies of Palestinian prisoners held by the Israeli occupation were buried today, Wednesday, in a mass grave in Deir al-Balah, with confirmation that a large number of them were subjected to torture and horrific violations.

The Director General of the Government Media Office in Gaza, Ismail Al-Thawabta, confirmed – in a press conference – that the bodies of 54 Palestinian martyrs who were detained by the Israeli occupation had been buried and had not been identified because the occupation refused to provide official lists of the names of the martyrs.

Al-Thawabta explained that the occupation returned the bodies of the martyrs with clear signs of torture, and said that official examinations confirmed that the occupation committed heinous violations against the martyrs, and that a number of them were executed by hanging or by shooting from close range, which confirms the implementation of deliberate field executions.

Al-Thawabta said that the bodies had fulfilled the specified period (about 5 days) and were documented and photographed with their belongings before being buried in numbered graves, after they were unable to be identified due to the blurring of features due to torture.

He renewed his demand for international bodies to send delegations to inspect the bodies, investigate the violations that targeted them, and prosecute the perpetrators of the massacres and hold them accountable.

Al Jazeera correspondent from Deir al-Balah, Ashraf Abu Amra, said that the bodies were transported from the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, noting that citizens used stones from demolished homes to build the graves.

The correspondent explained that the occupation forces are expected to deliver, later today, a seventh batch of the bodies of Palestinian prisoners, including 30 bodies, through the Kissufim crossing.

Since the implementation of the agreement to stop the war on Gaza on October 10, Israel has handed over 165 bodies of Palestinian martyrs who died in captivity.

Palestinian bodies arrive from the Israeli side unidentified, and the authorities in Gaza are making strenuous efforts to identify them using limited means and primitive capabilities.

Procedures include summoning the families of missing persons to try to identify the bodies based on apparent signs such as clothing, or body features such as height, build, and injuries.

The Ministry of Health also launched an electronic link that includes selected photos of bodies that “take into account the dignity of the deceased and do not infringe on his privacy,” with the aim of providing the families of missing persons with the opportunity to get to know them from a distance.

The head of the Department of Martyrs’ Mortuaries at the Ministry of Health, Ahmed Dhair, said that the Forensic Medicine Department in Gaza does not have any equipment to conduct DNA tests on bodies, or specialized laboratories. He explained that the department’s staff consists of only 16 individuals, and they work without capabilities or capabilities.