RAMALLAH: At least 11 persons were hurt in Jerusalem on Tuesday as Israeli troops battled with protesters seeking the release of the bodies of Palestinians who died in prison at the Qalandia barrier.
Soldiers fired bullets and used tear gas to disperse the crowd as dozens of Palestinians marched toward the checkpoint from the Al-Amari refugee camp south of Ramallah.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, medics treated a young guy who looked to have been shot in the leg with explosive bullets. Eight persons were treated for tear gas inhalation, and two were burned after being struck by gas canisters.
Families of victims who died while detained in Israeli prisons, as well as civil society representatives, marched in the demonstration. It follows a similar event earlier this week at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. According to reports, Israeli forces are keeping the bodies of 17 Palestinians from the city who died in prison.
According to a campaign that advocates for the return of bodies and information about the whereabouts of missing people, Israeli authorities have held the bodies of 256 Palestinians in so-called “graves of numbers” and 117 in refrigerators since Israel resumed its policy of kidnapping bodies in October 2015.
Furthermore, Palestinians claim that 68 persons have gone missing since the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967, with their fates unknown. The Israeli authorities maintain that they have no information on them.
Protesters demanded that the international world hold Israel accountable, citing the refusal to repatriate bodies as collective punishment and a violation of international human rights standards. According to them, Israeli authorities are holding the bodies of dozens of former inmates in order to exert pressure on Hamas to release four Israeli soldiers who have gone missing in Gaza.
Five women and 11 convicts who died in captivity are among those whose bodies have been withheld in Jerusalem. The most recent fatality was that of Abu Hamid, a Fatah member who died of lung cancer on December 20 at Israel’s Asaf Harofeh Hospital.
According to Ahmed Ghuneim, a Fatah leader in Jerusalem, Israel would not freely release the bodies, thus the protests will continue. He stated that the Palestinian Authority should undertake concerted attempts to compel Israeli authorities to hand them over, including legal action in international tribunals.
“Detaining the bodies of occupied people after their death is something no country in the world has done, and the silence about it has led Israel to feel that its behavior and conduct is normal and acceptable,” he said.
Israeli authorities refuse to disclose death certificates to relatives of inmates who died in Israeli prisons or lists of those who are still being held.
According to Dana Ben Shimon, a prominent correspondent for the Israeli publication Israel Hayom, Israeli officials are withholding bodies in order to gain leverage in future prisoner exchange negotiations.
Palestinian sources confirmed to Arab News that efforts to return the bodies will continue in the coming weeks.
Source: Arab News
