Gaza Herald _ Israel’s acknowledgment that it is holding the body of a Palestinian detainee from Gaza who died in custody has renewed attention on the long-standing issue of withheld bodies and enforced disappearances, amid accusations from Palestinian human rights organizations that the practice is being used as a form of political leverage.
The issue resurfaced after the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the military is retaining the body of a detainee who died at a detention facility near the Beit Hanoun (Erez) crossing.
Ramy Abdu, chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said the disclosure does not reveal a new policy but rather confirms practices that rights groups have documented since the early months of the war.
According to Abdu, his organization has documented cases of Palestinians killed since October 7, 2023, whose bodies remain in Israeli custody, as well as incidents in which bodies were reportedly exhumed from cemeteries and withheld.
He said hundreds of Palestinian families still do not know what happened to missing relatives and remain uncertain whether they were killed beneath the rubble, died in Israeli detention, or continue to have their bodies withheld.
Abdu said that the policy extends beyond humanitarian concerns and has become linked to negotiations over prisoners and missing persons.
He described the practice as a violation of international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, which require parties to armed conflicts to respect the dead and return bodies to their families without unnecessary delay.
Euro-Med Monitor said withholding bodies for political or negotiating purposes amounts to using them as bargaining tools, depriving families not only of information about the fate of their loved ones but also of the opportunity to bury them according to their religious and cultural traditions.
Legal researcher Hisham Al-Sharbati said the policy forms part of what he described as a broader pattern of enforced disappearance affecting Palestinians detained from Gaza.
He said Israeli authorities have withheld information about the fate of large numbers of detainees while restricting access by lawyers and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Questions also remain about detainees whose deaths have been reported inside Israeli detention facilities. Human rights advocates say uncertainty persists over the fate of many detainees amid reports that some died as a result of torture, medical neglect, or starvation while in custody.
Rights groups have further raised concerns that the continued withholding of bodies may obstruct efforts to determine the causes of death, particularly after several bodies returned to Gaza in recent months reportedly showed signs of torture or other forms of mistreatment.
Euro-Med Monitor has called for the ICRC and independent human rights organizations to be granted access to detention facilities, detainee records, and information concerning withheld bodies. The organization also urged the creation of an independent international mechanism to investigate the fate of missing Palestinians and detainees who died in Israeli custody, arguing that the withholding of bodies and concealment of detainees’ fate may constitute serious violations of international law requiring international accountability.
