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The Palestinian resistance group Hamas has demanded an immediate international investigation into what it described as Israeli crimes against Palestinians whose bodies were recently returned to Gaza under the ongoing ceasefire agreement.
In a statement issued on Thursday, Hamas said the bodies showed visible signs of torture, abuse, and summary executions, accusing the Israeli army of “criminal and fascist conduct” and of a “moral and humanitarian collapse.”
“The horrific scenes on the bodies of the martyrs returned by the occupation — the signs of torture, abuse, and field executions — clearly reveal the criminal nature of the occupation army,” the statement declared.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed that Israel had handed over the bodies of 120 Palestinians as part of the prisoner exchange deal that began last Friday.
The ministry’s director general, Munir al-Barsh, said many of the bodies bore marks of burns, beatings, handcuffing, and blindfolding, suggesting that several victims had been tortured before their deaths.
The ministry further explained that the bodies were returned without any identification, compelling medical teams to use manual and basic methods to establish their identities.
To assist families searching for missing relatives, an online portal featuring carefully selected images was launched, which the ministry said “respect the dignity of the deceased and do not violate their privacy.”
Condemning the reported acts, Hamas stated that “the occupation does not distinguish between the living and the dead among our people,” describing the killings as “a heinous crime amounting to genocide.”
The movement called on international human rights bodies, the United Nations, and the UN Human Rights Council to “document these crimes, open an urgent and comprehensive investigation, and bring the occupation leaders to justice.”
According to the Palestinian National Campaign to Recover the Bodies of Martyrs and Uncover the Fate of the Missing, an NGO, Israel was holding the bodies of 735 Palestinians in so-called “cemeteries of numbers” before the ceasefire took effect.
