Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, a short while ago, received the bodies of 54 slain Palestinians and 66 other boxes of human remains that were handed over by Israel via the Red Cross, the Strip’s Hamas-run health ministry says.
Medical staff will work to identify the bodies and remains, and to return them to their families, says the health ministry.
Israel has not commented on the ministry’s statement.
The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a Palestinian group that has petitioned the High Court for the release of Palestinians’ bodies, said in a court filing on Sunday that Israel was holding the bodies of over 700 Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank, including hundreds of unidentified people killed by Israel in the Strip during the war since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Last week, in accordance with the October 9 Gaza ceasefire-hostage deal, Israel handed over the bodies of 15 Gazans, following the retrieval of the body of Police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage in Gaza.
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