Israel returns bodies of over 80 Palestinians to Gaza, keeps up military pressure

[August 06, 2024]  By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Hatem Khaled

CAIRO/GAZA (Reuters) -Israel returned the bodies of more than 80 Palestinians killed in its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli airstrikes killed at least 18 more people on Monday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

Yamen Abu Suleiman, the director of the Palestinian Civil Emergency Service in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, said it was unclear whether the bodies had been dug up from cemeteries by the army during the ground offensive, or whether they were "detainees who had been tortured and killed."

"The occupation provided us with no information about the names, or ages, or anything. This is a war crime, a crime against humanity," Abu Suleiman said.

He said the bodies would be examined in an attempt to determine the causes of death and to identify them, before being buried in a mass grave at a cemetery near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

The Hamas-run Gaza government media office said Israel had sent 89 bodies as "bones and decomposed bodies in an inhumane manner."

It said Israeli forces had "stolen" 2,000 bodies since Oct 7 from dozens of cemeteries, which they bulldozed during their ongoing military offensive.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the return of the bodies. In the past, Israel has said it returned bodies after checks they were not Israeli hostages who had been held by Hamas since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

NO CEASEFIRE DEAL

In Jerusalem, the Israeli Hostages Families Forum asked why Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would allow the handover of Palestinian bodies without a ceasefire deal with Hamas.

"Why are bodies being returned outside the framework of a comprehensive deal? Such an agreement could bring back living hostages for rehabilitation and the deceased for proper burial," they said in a statement.

A person buries the bodies of unidentified Palestinians at a mass grave after the bodies were handed over by Israel, amid Israel-Hamas conflict, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip August 5, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

In southeast Khan Younis, residents said Israeli aerial and tank shelling continued overnight, including in areas for which Israel had issued evacuation orders, saying militants had been waging attacks from there.

An Israeli air strike killed eight Palestinians in a vehicle on the road near Khan Younis on Monday, medics said.

The Israeli military said on Monday it had killed Abdel-Fattah Al-Zriei, whom it said was involved in the weapons manufacturing department in Hamas. The strike took place on Sunday, it added.

Palestinian health officials said Zriei, who was deputy minister of the economy in the Gaza Strip, was "assassinated" in an Israeli strike on his house in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, that also killed his mother.

According to Israeli tallies, 1,200 people were killed in Hamas' attack on southern Israel and 250 taken hostage.

At least 39,550 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.

Palestinian health officials say most of the fatalities have been civilians. Israel, which has lost around 330 soldiers in Gaza, says around a third of the Palestinian dead are fighters.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi in Cairo and Hatem Khaled in Gaza; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Christina Fincher)

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