GENEVA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), In a statement to the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), Yasmin Al-Bursh, wife of slain Palestinian doctor Adnan Al-Bursh, called for pressure on Israeli authorities to release his body and the bodies of other Palestinians they are holding, allowing families to exercise their right to bid farewell to their loved ones and bury them with dignity.
During the Council’s 63rd session, the wife of the doctor who was killed under torture in an Israeli prison, delivered the statement remotely from Gaza on behalf of Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
Al-Bursh said that the international community’s abandonment of Palestinians by allowing Israel to commit war crimes and genocide without accountability gives it the green light to commit another crime by withholding victims’ bodies and depriving their families of their basic rights.
Al-Bursh said that Israeli authorities have been holding her husband’s body for more than two and a half years, deepening the family’s psychological suffering. She noted that hundreds of other families whose loved ones’ bodies are being held by Israel share the same anguish.
Furthermore, Al-Bursh explained that the Israeli occupation is committing a compounded crime against victims’ families by denying them their humanity and their right to bid farewell, adding that Israel has used this policy for years as a tool of punishment, humiliation, and leverage.
“I’m not alone in this doubled pain and loss, which makes it impossible even to come to terms with the idea of his death and keeps the circle of grief open,” Al-Bursh said. She explained that Israel continues to hold the bodies of more than 1,700 Palestinians killed by Israeli army fire or who died under torture in its prisons.
Al-Bursh called on the international community and the HRC member states to pressure the Israeli authorities to release the withheld bodies and to enable their families to give them a proper burial.
Doctor Adnan Al-Bursh, head of orthopedic surgery at Al-Shifa Medical Complex, was among the Gaza Strip’s most prominent medical professionals.
As the genocide began, he refused to evacuate and moved between hospitals in Gaza City and the northern Gaza Strip to save the wounded. On 19 December 2023, the Israeli army arrested him at Al-Awda Hospital while he was performing his duties. He endured severe, continuous torture throughout months of detention, and his death at Ofer Prison was announced on 19 April 2024.
Yasmin Al-Bursh’s statement before the HRC is part of Euro-Med Monitor’s policy of empowering victims and their families. This policy provides them with appropriate tools and platforms to protect and defend their rights, while mobilizing the pressure needed to hold those responsible for crimes against them accountable.
