GAZA,(The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)Palestinian officials and rights groups have sounded the alarm over mounting evidence of systematic torture and field executions carried out by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) against detainees and civilians in Gaza, as thousands remain missing and unidentified bodies continue to surface.
According to the Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons, at least 6,000 Palestinians from Gaza have been reported missing since the start of the Israeli genocide, amid the near-total destruction and communications blackout that have severely hampered search and documentation efforts.
The center’s director, Ahmad Massoud, said the organization has so far documented 1,300 confirmed cases of missing persons, while field teams continue to collect data under dire conditions. He added that most of the missing are young men, underscoring the deep humanitarian and social impact of the crisis on Gaza’s already devastated population.
In a grim development, Gaza’s Ministry of Health announced that it has received 165 bodies from the Israeli occupation authority since the start of the genocide, many of which bear clear signs of torture, mutilation, and execution. The latest transfer included 15 bodies handed over to Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis.
Medical sources confirmed that the bodies arrived with attached Hebrew documents indicating they were returned from the Sde Teiman military detention facility in the Negev desert, a site increasingly described by survivors and rights groups as a torture and execution camp. Some of the victims’ remains had been subjected to DNA testing before their return, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry Director-General Dr. Munir al-Bursh.
Witness testimonies and forensic examinations revealed that many of the victims had been restrained, blindfolded, and tied to hospital beds, forced to wear diapers, and exposed to severe physical abuse before death, practices consistent with evidence published by The Guardian (British newspaper) in previous investigations into Israeli detention sites.
On Wednesday, hundreds of Palestinians gathered in Deir al-Balah for the burial of 54 martyrs whose remains were returned by the Israeli occupation forces through the International Committee of the Red Cross. Due to extreme disfigurement and decomposition, the victims could not be identified, and they were buried in numbered graves following prayers attended by relatives and officials.
During a press conference at the burial site, Gaza Government Media Office (GMO) Director Ismail al-Thawabta said the victims’ bodies showed unmistakable signs of brutal torture and deliberate execution, including hanging marks and gunshot wounds from close range. “These are not combat deaths,” al-Thawabta said. “They are field executions, acts of murder carried out in cold blood.”
The GMO confirmed that the burial process followed strict documentation procedures, including photographing and cataloguing all items found with the bodies before interment.
Medical and legal experts described the findings as evidence of systematic war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. “What we are witnessing is not isolated abuse, it is a policy of extermination and collective punishment against prisoners and civilians alike,” said al-Bursh.
The GMO called on the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, and global human rights organizations to launch an independent investigation into the Israeli crimes and hold those responsible, including Israeli political and military leaders, accountable for violations of international law.
