Israeli occupation forces continue to hold on to the bodies of 35 Palestinian children killed in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem and refuses to hand them over to their parents and relatives for burial reports the Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP).
These bodies have been kept by Israeli forces since 2016. Grieving Palestinian families see this act as a collective punishment according the Quds News Network.
The number of confiscated bodies was previously 40 but five were since released to their families after much pleading to be buried stated the DCIP.
“Palestinian children cannot rest even in death as Israeli authorities continue to confiscate their bodies and withhold them from their families indefinitely,” says Ayed Abu Eqtaish, DCIP accountability program director.
The Israeli army and settlers killed 64 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank in 2024, including two United States citizens, according to documentation collected by DCIP.
Since 7 October 2023, 145 Palestinian children were killed in the occupied West Bank according to the DCIP, when the Israeli military began a full-scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
In 2023, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 121 Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces and settlers shot and killed 103 Palestinian children with live ammunition, 13 Palestinian children were killed in drone strikes, four Palestinian children were killed by missiles fired from a US-provided Apache attack helicopter, and one child was killed in an Israeli warplane airstrike.
The Israeli occupation practice of confiscating and withholding the bodies of Palestinian that are killed is a violation of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, which include absolute prohibitions on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, as well as stipulating that parties of an armed conflict must bury the deceased in an honorable way, DCIP said.
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