Palestinian Center for the Missing calls for completion of handover of martyrs’ bodies and disclosure of the fate of the missing

The Palestinian Center for the Missing and the Enforcedly Disappeared called for the completion of the handover of all bodies of Palestinians killed and for this humanitarian file to be closed entirely, saying it was monitoring the Israeli army’s delivery of the bodies of 45 Palestinians via the International Committee of the Red Cross to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.

The center expressed appreciation for the Red Cross’s efforts, calling for continued verification of the bodies’ identities through DNA testing, ensuring their dignity is preserved, and their swift handover to relatives. It noted that some bodies were delivered intact while others arrived as remains, which raises concern about the circumstances of death and detention.

The center demanded full disclosure of the names of the deceased and details of their deaths and immediate notification of families, in respect of their right to know and dignity, as well as the release of all bodies held in the occupation’s refrigerated facilities and numbered graves, and disclosure of the fate of those missing since the start of the offensive on Gaza.

It also called on the international community, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to pressure Israel to allow the entry of equipment needed to recover bodies and identify the missing, stressing that continued detention of bodies and denying families the opportunity to mourn their children constitute a humanitarian crime and a gross violation of international humanitarian law, and that the right to a dignified burial does not lapse with time and that revealing the truth is part of the justice owed to victims and their families.