'We just want to say our goodbyes': Hopes dashed for families as Israel releases unidentified bodies in Gaza

Gazan authorities critical over 'digging up and stealing' from graves across the enclave

Mourners watch as medical personnel prepare the bodies of Palestinians, that were taken and later released without identification by Israel, during a mass funeral in Rafah, on March 7. AFP

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When Mohammed Barbakh heard that a container of bodies was being handed over to Gazan officials by Israeli authorities, a flicker of hope stirred within him.

He wondered whether he would be able to bury his two brothers Ibrahim, 19, and Raafat, 24, six months after Israeli forces had taken them.

On Wednesday, Gaza's Health Ministry refused to accept the bodies of 88 unidentified people from Israel on the premise that it was a breach of their dignity and their families' right to know whether their loved ones were among the dead.

A day later, health authorities accepted the bodies, which were kept in the container overnight but criticised the Israeli forces for “digging up and stealing” them from graves and keeping them in “immoral and illegal conditions”.

For Mohammad, 26, the hope of finding his brothers was dashed with the identities of the returned dead still unclear.

“We were devastated again,” he said. “My mother and father just want to bury their sons and say their goodbyes like anyone else in the world. This is a basic and natural right.”

The two Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis in March. “They were walking when the occupation forces sniped them. People saw them die but couldn’t retrieve their bodies and had to hide,” Mohammed said. Witnesses told him that they had seen army dogs drag his brothers' bodies towards military vehicles. “Since then, they have been missing,” he added.

Makeshift graves on the ground outside the destroyed Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza city. AFP

Zahir Al Wahidi, director of the health information systems unit at the Ministry of Health, told The National that Israeli authorities did not co-ordinate with Gazan officials.

“The Israeli army refused to provide information about these bodies or clarify whether they were from prisons, retrieved from cemeteries, or if they were civilians who had been executed.”

Israel has repeatedly desecrated graves to find out whether Hamas leaders or Israeli hostages were among those buried in Gaza, where about 41,500 people have been killed and more than 96,000 have been injured since October 7.

The ministry's short-lived refusal to accept the bodies aimed to protest Israel's negligent manner in treating corpses, Mr Al Wahidi said.

“We received bodies in this manner four times before, but this time we wanted to put an end to this practice, demanding enough information and details. We refused to open the container or examine its contents until the necessary information was provided to preserve the dignity of the deceased and facilitate their identification.”

Israel had returned about 6,200 bodies since the war began with incomplete or incorrect information, making identification exceptionally difficult.

However, backlash from Gazans themselves, who sided against the ministry's decision in favour of laying the bodies to rest in dignity, put pressure on Gaza's authorities to accept them despite the pain of not having clear identification.

Muath Shtayyeh's brother Hassan, 25, was killed in February and buried in the grounds of Gaza city's Al Shifa Hospital. During Israel's second assault on the hospital in March, the army bulldozed the cemetery, unearthing bodies as they withdrew.

“We went to check my brother’s grave, but we couldn’t find it,” Mr Shtayyeh, 23, told The National. “A few days later, the crews started searching for bodies and found many, but some remained missing, including my brother’s. We believe the army took his body for examination.”

Mr Shtayyeh said that if the released unidentified bodies are buried, his family will never know for sure if his brother is among them.

“We wouldn’t be able to say goodbye or be involved in his burial”.