Hamas is calling on the international community to investigate after bodies it received from Israel as part of a ceasefire agreement showed signs of “torture” and “mutilation.”
Israel has handed over dozens of bodies, but it remains unclear whether they were Palestinians who died in Israeli custody or bodies taken from Gaza by Israeli troops.
Hamas said the condition of the bodies “constitutes a heinous crime that amounts to genocide against our Palestinian people.”
"We call on international human rights institutions, foremost among them the United Nations and the Human Rights Council, to document these heinous crimes, open an urgent and comprehensive investigation into them, and bring the occupation leaders to trial before the competent international courts, as they are responsible for committing crimes against humanity unprecedented in our contemporary history," Hamas said in a statement.
Israel, which launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, assault, has not responded to the torture allegations. However, it has also condemned the conditions in which Hamas held Israeli hostages, taken during that same attack that killed more than 1,000 people.
Meanwhile, Israeli officials have criticized Hamas for failing to return all the bodies of hostages, as required under the U.S.-backed peace deal. Only about 10 of the 28 bodies have been returned. Hamas has said it has handed over all the bodies it could access.
“As for the remaining bodies, they require significant efforts and special equipment to search for and retrieve them, and we are making great efforts to close this file,” Hamas noted this week.
A senior U.S. adviser said returning all deceased bodies before or within the 72-hour ceasefire window would have been “almost impossible.” The official added that the U.S. is in talks with other governments, including Turkey, to send experts to help locate and recover the remaining bodies.
The dispute over the bodies has raised new questions about whether the ceasefire will hold or give way to renewed fighting.
