The Palestine Center for Detainees' Studies confirmed that the Israeli authorities are still holding six bodies of martyrs detainees. Most of them died during the past two years, the last of whom was Saadi al-Gharabli from Gaza.

The Center considered the detention of the bodies of the martyrs one of the most heinous moral, legal and humanitarian crimes as Israel is the only entity in the world that legislates for it through a special law that allows the detention of the bodies of Palestinian martyrs.

“There is no text, law, or religion that prohibits parents from taking a last farewell look at their children or burying them in their own way, as they have been deprived of seeing them alive after the Israeli authorities detained them for many years in harsh conditions," the centre added.

The director of the center, Riyad Al-Ashqar, said that the oldest martyr is Anis Mahmoud Dawla, from Qalqilya, and he died in 1980 during an open hunger strike in "Ashkelon" jail. Until now, the fate and whereabouts of his body remains unknown, for 40 years.

As for the detainee Aziz Uisat, from Jerusalem, he died in 2018, after he was brutally assaulted in "Eshel" jail, which led to lung lacerations and internal bleeding, in addition to a severe heart attack. He died four years later as the authorities refused to release him. His body is still being held.

Al-Ashqar added that the third one is Faris Ahmed Baroud, detained in 1991 and sentenced to life imprisonment, and his health had clearly declined in recent years. He died in February 2019, and his body has not been released yet.

The next one is Nassar Majed Taqatqa, from Bethlehem, died in July 2019 after a month of his detention as a result of the cruel torture he was subjected to in the detention center, which led to a deterioration in his health; the authorities refused to give him treatment or transfer him to the hospital.

Moreover, Bassam Amin Al-Sayeh, from the city of Nablus, was detained in 2015 and suffered from cancer, in addition to difficult health conditions. During the last months of his detention, his health deteriorated without taking his condition seriously by the administration of the prisons, so he died due to medical negligence.

Al-Ashqar added that the last one is Saadi Khalil al-Gharabli, from the Gaza Strip, detained in 1994 and sentenced to life imprisonment. His health had deteriorated gradually in recent years due to his old age and his suffering from cancer and chronic diseases such as diabetes and blood pressure. The Israeli authorities refused to release him until he died in July 2020.

Finally, Al-Ashqar called on human rights organizations to intervene and pressure Israel to release the bodies of the detained martyrs, and hand them over to their families, in line with the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Conventions, which obligated the occupied countries to hand over the bodies to their families, respect the dignity of the deceased and take into account their religious rituals during burial operations.

Source : Safa