GAZA CITY, Palestine/ISTANBUL
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday that it had received the remains of 15 Palestinians from Israel through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) under a ceasefire agreement.
A ministry statement said the transfer brought the number of bodies returned by Israel to 315 since its ceasefire deal with Hamas came into effect on Oct. 10.
The ministry noted that medical teams are continuing to process the bodies according to approved medical protocols, preparing them for examination, documentation and handover to their families.
Israel delivers the bodies without names, many of which bear no recognizable features due to torture and mutilation, according to earlier ministry data.
Families of missing Palestinians attempt to identify the bodies through remaining physical marks or clothing, as Gaza lacks DNA testing equipment following Israel’s blockade and destruction of laboratories.
The ministry said 91 of the 315 returned bodies have so far been identified, while 182 unidentified bodies have been buried, including 38 interred earlier in central Gaza.
Mohamad Abu Shamala, deputy director of Civil Defense in central Gaza, told Anadolu that none of the 38 bodies could be identified due to the long period of detention and severe torture and mutilation.
He noted that “some bore tank and shell marks, head injuries and complete facial disfigurement, while many showed signs of binding, strangulation and ropes still around their necks at burial.”
Abu Shamala added that they “were buried with dignity, despite the difficult circumstances.”
Before the ceasefire, Israel held 735 Palestinian bodies in so-called “cemeteries of numbers,” according to the Palestinian National Campaign to Retrieve Martyrs’ Bodies.
The Israeli daily Haaretz earlier reported that the army has been holding about 1,500 bodies of Palestinians from Gaza at the notorious Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel.
Israel has killed more than 69,000 people, mostly women and children, injured over 170,600 others, and left about 9,500 missing – many believed to be trapped under destroyed homes or still unaccounted for in attacks in Gaza since October 2023.