Palestinians launch campaign to recover bodies of loved ones killed by Israel

Palestinian families have launched a campaign to recover the bodies of those who were killed by Israeli forces, according to Arabi 21. 

Dozens of Palestinian families participated in a march in Ramallah’s Al-Manara square in the occupied West Bank and held up images of their loved ones who died at the hands of Israeli forces and whose bodies are being withheld by the occupation. 

Watch | Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrate in Ramallah demanding the Israeli occupation authorities to hand over the withheld bodies of dozens of Palestinian martyrs. pic.twitter.com/axOzysNEBK

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 4, 2022

The bodies of hundreds of Palestinian sons and husbands lie in Israeli refrigerators and graveyards, with authorities in Israel refusing to return them to their families. 

Israel holds the bodies of 103 Palestinians in refrigerators, and an additional 256 have already been buried without allowing families to perform their last rites, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club. 

“It causes endless pain for the families of the martyrs and is a violation of the most basic human rights,” said Adnan Rajbeh, the father of Bilal Rajbeh whose body has remained with Israel since he was killed in November 2020  as quoted by Arabi 21.

The Israeli Supreme Court in 2019 approved the detention of the bodies of those Palestinians who were killed by security forces to be used as a bargaining chip in the future, in a move described as inhumane by Palestinians and rights groups.