UPDATE - Israel transfers remains of over 80 dead Palestinians

UPDATES WITH DETAILS; CHANGES DECK; EDITS THROUGH

By Hosni Nadim

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - Israel has delivered the remains of more than 80 Palestinians through the International Committee of the Red Cross, a Palestinian official has told Anadolu.

“The Palestinian side received the remains of dozens of Palestinians killed by Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing in a large truck container,” Ahmad Duhair, the acting head of the Justice Ministry’s Forensic Medicine Department, said Monday.

“Identifying the individuals is difficult due to complete decomposition,” added Duhair.

Israel had placed "the remains in plastic bags with serial numbers only, without providing the Palestinian side with any information about these bodies or the places from which they were taken, where they were killed, or where they were held,” he added.

He said some of the remains “are dressed in winter clothing, indicating they were abducted or killed last winter.”

It is unclear whether the remains belonged to Palestinians killed inside the Gaza Strip or during their detention.

Meanwhile, the Gaza government's media office said in a statement commenting on handing the bodies that the Israeli forces have taken 2,000 bodies from cemeteries throughout the course of its devastating onslaught against the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.

"Over the course of 304 days of the genocide, the (Israeli) occupation has kidnapped more than 2,000 bodies of martyrs and dead people from dozens of cemeteries in the governorates of the Gaza Strip, which the occupation bulldozed with bulldozers and military vehicles and turned their graves over, in a scene that violates humanity and human feelings,” the statement said.

The government media office previously accused Israel of stealing organs from dead Palestinians.

There has been no Israeli comment on the accusation.

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack last October by Hamas.

More than 39,600 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 91,600 injured, according to local health authorities.

Almost 10 months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water,
and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

* Writing by Rania Abu Shamala and Ahmed Asmar.