Israel returns bodies of 89 Palestinians to Gaza

Israel had returned the bodies of 89 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said on Monday, reported Xinhua.

These bodies, previously held by Israel, were delivered through the Kerem Shalom crossing in the southern Gaza Strip by the International Committee of the Red Cross, Palestinian security sources requesting anonymity told Xinhua.

The sources said that the bodies were placed in plastic bags with serial numbers but without any information about their origins, the locations from which they were taken, or the places where they were killed.

According to the media office, the Israeli side had kidnapped more than 2,000 bodies of the slain victims from dozens of cemeteries in the Gaza Strip over the course of 304 days of the conflict.

The statement called for the establishment of an independent international investigation into the abduction of the corpses and what they said was "the theft of their vital organs."

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the return of the bodies. In the past, the IDF has said it has removed dozens of bodies from Gaza for DNA tests in Israel to see if there are Israeli hostages.

The returned bodies were buried on Monday in a mass grave at the Turkish cemetery in Khan Younis, the southern Gaza Strip.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and around 250 others taken hostage.