SAFA - The Palestinian Center for Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons has accused “Israel” of extending the crime of enforced disappearance by withholding bodies from the Gaza Strip and using them as bargaining chips.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the Center cited a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealing that Israeli forces are holding 1,700 bodies of Palestinians from Gaza as bargaining chips.

According to the Center, an estimated 2,000 people from Gaza remain forcibly disappeared, with their whereabouts unknown during the war.

The Center said that withholding bodies for bargaining purposes constitutes collective punishment, which is prohibited under international law and amounts to a war crime under the Rome Statute.

The center called on the international community and the Red Cross to pressure “Israel” to release the names of those being held and to disclose the locations of the bodies.