Gaza health official reports signs of torture, burns on Palestinian bodies returned by Israel

By Rasa Evrensel and Rania Abu Shamala

ISTANBUL (AA) – A top health official in Gaza said Thursday that signs of torture and burns were found on the bodies of Palestinian detainees returned by Israel under a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement.

“The bodies of Gaza’s prisoners were returned to us bound like animals, blindfolded, and bearing horrific signs of torture and burns — evidence of atrocities committed in secrecy,” Munir al-Bursh, Director General of Gaza’s Health Ministry, said in a post on the US social media company X.

He described the visible marks of torture and burns on the bodies of the Palestinian prisoners as “crimes that cannot be concealed.”

The bodies “were not buried but held for months in Israeli morgues, and many were executed after being tied up,” he said.

“The bodies of innocent Palestinians were left as a witness to the executioners' brutality, as they did not die a natural death but were executed after being bound,” al-Bursh said, calling for an urgent international investigation to bring the perpetrators to justice, describing what happened as a “full-fledged war crime.”

The Health Ministry said early Thursday that it had received the remains of 30 Palestinians released by Israel through the International Committee of the Red Cross, noting that some bodies bore signs of abuse. At least 120 bodies of dead Palestinians have been released by Israel under the ceasefire deal since Tuesday.

The handover of the bodies came under the Gaza ceasefire agreement that took effect on Friday between Israel and Hamas. Phase one of the deal included the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel currently keeps the bodies of 735 Palestinian prisoners, including 67 children, the Palestinian National Campaign for the Retrieval of Martyrs’ Bodies said.

According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, Israel keeps nearly 1,500 bodies of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in the Sde Teiman military base in the Negev Desert, southern Israel.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.