RAMALLAH _ Palestine News Network
Dozens of Palestinians participated in a rally in Ramallah on Wednesday demanding Israel releases corpses of Palestinians its forces have killed and has been holding in what is known as “numbered cemeteries” or in morgues.
The rally was called for by the families of the dead Palestinians and the National Committee for Retrieving Corpses of Martyrs.
Participants held pictures of their sons demanding that Israel ends it collective punishment policy against the Palestinian families by holding the bodies of their sons and preventing them from giving them a proper burial in their towns.
The committee said it documented Israel is still withholding corpses of 253 Palestinians since 1967 and that it has released in the past years corpses of 131. In addition, there are still 68 Palestinians considered missing since 1967 when Israel occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
It said the withheld corpses are kept in graves identified only by numbers in cemeteries throughout Israel.
In addition, Israel has held corpses of 220 Palestinians killed in recent years in lone wolf attacks in the occupied territories and inside Israel that started in October 2015. However, it has released most of them over the past months and is still holding 28 corpses, most likely as a bargaining chip to trade them in any future exchange deal with the Palestinians.
