No autopsies for victims of Huwara attack, as national forensic center is closed

The bodies of two victims of a terror shooting this weekend did not undergo autopsies, as the National Center of Forensic Medicine closed for a day, after being overwhelmed, Channel 12 reports.

Shay Silas Nigreker, 60, and his 28-year-old son Aviad Nir were killed in the West Bank town of Huwara on Saturday.

Due to the shutdown, they were buried Sunday without the autopsies taking place, as waiting would have delayed funerals by a further day.

The National Center of Forensic Medicine announced on Sunday that it would not accept more bodies for 24 hours. According to reports in several Hebrew-language new outlets, the center is on the verge of collapse due to overload of staff and facilities.

The center’s leadership decided to refuse new cases for at least one day, after 21 bodies were delivered over the Friday-Saturday weekend and only three of six doctors were available to perform autopsies. The number of bodies also outstripped the number of refrigerated units available for holding them.

The center in Jaffa, known colloquially as Abu Kabir, is the only forensic medicine institute in Israel. All cases of death not by natural causes must be investigated there. These include murder, manslaughter, deaths involving sexual assault, and suicides. Abu Kabir must prepare forensic evidence for legal cases, and also provide definitive answers about the cause of death to the families of the deceased.