Euro-Mediterranean Monitor calls for an investigation committee into the occupation’s detention of the bodies of martyrs in the Gaza Strip

Geneva, (ST) – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called for an independent international investigation committee into the Israeli occupation forces’ detention of the bodies of dozens of Palestinian martyrs in the Gaza Strip and theft of organs from them, as well as the exhumation of graves, extraction of bodies from them, and detention of them.

The Monitor said in a statement today that it documented the occupation forces detaining the bodies of martyrs from the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, and from the vicinity of the displacement corridor to the center and south of the Gaza Strip, which passes through Salah Al-Din Street.

The Monitor pointed out that the occupation also exhumed a mass grave that had been established more than ten days ago, in one of the courtyards of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, and extracted the bodies from it and detained them.

The Monitor announced that it recorded observations made by doctors in Gaza who conducted a quick examination of some bodies after the occupation forces released them, and noticed the theft of organs such as the cornea of the eye and the cochlea, and other vital organs such as the liver, kidneys, and heart.

The Monitor pointed out previous confessions by Israeli officials about stealing organs from the bodies of Palestinian martyrs, to transplant them into the bodies of patients or use them in medical colleges in occupation universities and conduct research on them.

The Monitor stressed that “Israel” must be bound by the rules of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, all of which stipulate “the necessity of respecting and protecting the bodies of the dead during armed conflicts.

The Monitor added that refusing to hand over the bodies to their families for burial with dignity may amount to the level of collective punishment prohibited in Article 50. of the Hague Regulations, and Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Raghda Sawas