Skip to content Skip to footer

Israel Sends 88 Unidentifiable Bodies of Palestinians to Gaza in a Container

The Israeli military returned the Palestinians’ bodies with no identification or information about their deaths.

People stand next to a truck carrying 88 bodies, which according to the Palestinian health ministry entered the Gaza Strip from Israel the day before, as it awaits for the bodies to be unloaded and buried in a mass grave in Khan Yunis on September 26, 2024.

On Wednesday, Israeli forces sent a shipping container to Gaza that contained bodies of 88 Palestinians that were decomposed to the point that they were unidentifiable, sparking horror over Israel’s treatment of Palestinians even after death.

Israel delivered the Palestinians’ bodies in a large yellow container loaded on a truck, with no identification or information about how, when or where the people were killed.

The Gaza Health Ministry rejected the shipment, saying in a statement that officials told Israeli authorities that they would not carry on with procedures to collect the bodies until Israel returned with the names and times of death of the Palestinians, as well as the locations they were abducted from. Palestinian officials decried the shipment as an “inhumane and criminal move.”

Not only did the Israeli military not provide any information about the Palestinians, it also seemingly allowed the bodies to rot before trying to return them to Gaza. According to Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Abu Azzoum, “the bodies are unidentifiable because they are mostly decomposed.”

Gaza health officials have set up a committee with “all relevant parties” to handle the bodies.

Israel has abducted thousands of Palestinians from Gaza and the occupied West Bank over the past year. Many of these people were imprisoned in Israel’s torture camps, where they were subject to horrific conditions like beatings, food and water deprivation, and sexual assault. The number of Palestinians the Israeli military has killed in these camps is unclear, but the UN reported in July that it knows of at least 53 deaths in Israeli custody since October. A UN expert reported this week that a third Palestinian doctor has died in an Israeli torture camp.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) noted that it was not involved in the transfer of the bodies, but said that “all families have the right to receive news about their loved ones and bury them respectfully and in line with their traditions.” The group also noted that it is a violation of international law to mishandle dead bodies.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor called for an immediate international investigation into the shipment, saying that Israel has likely violated international humanitarian law in its desecration of the Palestinians’ bodies.

“The ‘container’ holding the dead bodies was left in one of Khan Yunis’s streets. This is a grave violation of the rights of the dead people and their families, as well as a catastrophic situation that could result in a health catastrophe,” the group said.

Israel has delivered the bodies of Palestinian people in this way multiple times amid its genocide. This past August, Israeli forces delivered the unidentified bodies of over 80 Palestinians in a container.

Palestinian officials noted that it was unclear whether the bodies were people who had been abducted by Israeli forces or if the bodies had been exhumed from their graves by the Israeli military. Officials said that Israeli forces have stolen 2,000 dead bodies from Palestinian cemeteries since October.

Israel has a long history of maiming Palestinians’ bodies after death. Last week, video circulated of Israeli forces pushing dead bodies off a rooftop amid a raid in the occupied West Bank.

We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.

As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.

Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.

As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.

At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.

Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.

You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.