GAZA,(The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)Hussein Shujaia, the coordinator of the campaign to retrieve the bodies of Palestinian martyrs, stated that the number of martyrs whose bodies are being held by Israeli authorities exceeds 1,500, including 99 identified as prisoners.
Shujaia cited the Israeli newspaper Maariv, which reported the figure, noting that 735 of these bodies have been held since 1967, and the rest since the beginning of the current genocidal war.
He confirmed that around 86 of the detained bodies belonged to members of the Palestinian captive movement, which constitutes a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, particularly regarding the right to dignity for the deceased and the obligation to return their remains to their families.
Referencing Maariv, Shujaia noted that only 15 bodies from Gaza have been disclosed or discussed as part of prisoner exchanges, compared to the return of each Israeli body.
Some official US documents have suggested that any body exchange deal with Israel would follow a “body-for-body” formula, he added.
Shujaia emphasized that Israel continues to withhold the bodies either in “cemeteries of numbers” or in refrigeration units, refusing to reveal the fate or locations of hundreds of the deceased, despite ongoing human rights appeals.
He stressed that the campaign to retrieve the bodies is persisting in its legal and media efforts to pressure Israel to return all the remains and hold it accountable for this long-standing violation of international norms.
