Gaza, MINA – The Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, has called for the establishment of independent international investigative committees to uncover what he described as horrific crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces against the bodies of Palestinian martyrs recently returned to Gaza.
Dr. Al-Bursh said that what medical teams witnessed “defies description and represents a flagrant violation of human dignity and the sanctity of the dead.”
Speaking to Palestine Newspaper, he stressed that each of the returned martyrs’ bodies “requires an international investigative committee.” He revealed that several corpses showed signs of mutilation, being run over by armored vehicles, and execution-style killings at close range with bullets to the head or chest.
Forensic specialists also documented evidence of “sadism and Nazi-like treatment” of the bodies, according to Al-Bursh.
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The Ministry of Health received 315 bodies through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), but only 89 were identified. Due to limited medical capacity and destroyed morgue facilities, 182 were buried in a mass grave without identification.
Some bodies were decapitated, handcuffed, or blindfolded, while others bore precise surgical incisions, leading to suspicions of organ harvesting. “We saw carefully opened chests, with hearts, livers, kidneys, and even corneas missing. This is not the first time the occupation has committed such crimes,” Al-Bursh said.
He further revealed that several bodies appeared to have been mauled by trained dogs or wild animals. “We received one body that had been attacked by trained wild animals, a horrifying scene that chills the soul,” he said.
Due to the lack of morgue capacity, medical teams were forced to store the bodies in fish freezers to preserve them temporarily for identification. “We don’t have enough morgues or DNA testing labs; they were destroyed by the occupation,” he added.
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Al-Bursh explained that the decision to bury the unidentified bodies was made out of necessity, warning that “losing forensic samples and evidence could cost Palestinians the ability to legally prove these crimes.”
He noted that the ministry has followed limited procedures to collect samples and documentation but urgently needs international technical assistance to preserve evidence.
“The absence of investigative tools could result in the loss of the right to prosecute the perpetrators,” he warned.
The process of identifying the bodies is ongoing, with families relying on personal items such as clothing, wedding rings, or dental features to recognize their loved ones.
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Dr. Al-Bursh appealed to the international community, human rights groups, and medical organizations to activate investigative committees to document crimes of genocide, organ theft, and post-mortem abuse. He also urged the ICRC to provide full records of the returned martyrs, including the 182 buried without identification.
According to the Palestinian National Campaign to Retrieve the Martyrs’ Bodies, Israel was holding 735 Palestinian bodies before the ceasefire. Haaretz reported on July 16 that the Israeli army is currently holding about 1,500 additional Palestinian bodies from Gaza at the Sde Teiman military camp.
Human rights organizations have also documented several cases of Palestinian detainees from Gaza who died under torture while in Israeli custody during the ongoing genocidal war since October 2023.[]
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
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