Families of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army or who died in prisons, and the occupation continues to hold their bodies, launched a popular campaign demanding their handover.

This came during a sit-in yesterday, Saturday, in Al-Manara Square, in the center of Ramallah, in which Palestinian families and relatives participated, whose bodies are being held either in refrigerators or in cemeteries, which ended with a march during which they raised pictures of their children.

In his recitation of the first statement of the “popular campaign to retrieve the bodies of the martyrs,” Adnan Rajabeh, the father of Bilal Rajbeh, who was killed by the Israeli army in November 2020 and continues to hold his body, said that the families of the martyrs have exhausted all legal procedures in Israel, including the Supreme Court that It identifies with the Israeli political and security level.

He added that 253 bodies are in the numbers cemetery, and 105 bodies have been kept in refrigerators since 2015.

The term “cemeteries of numbers” refers to simple burials, and a metal plate is installed above each grave that bears a number, not the name of the martyr, and each number has a special file about the martyr kept by the Israeli security authority.

Rawajbeh said that holding the bodies causes endless pain to the families of the martyrs and a violation of the most basic human rights.


The campaign called for revealing the fate of missing persons whose families do not have sufficient information about their fate.

In turn, Fatima Mansour, the aunt of Mahmoud Humaidan, who was killed by the Israeli army west of Jerusalem in September 2021 and continues to hold his body, said that 9 of the detained bodies belong to prisoners who died inside prisons and interrogation centers.

She stated that 12 of the bodies belonged to Palestinians from Jerusalem, 27 belonged to Palestinians from the Gaza Strip, and 65 bodies belonged to Palestinians from the West Bank.

She said that 3 bodies belonged to females, and 9 belonged to children killed by the Israeli army.

On October 13, 2015, the Israeli Cabinet decided to return to holding the bodies of the martyrs, after moving the file before that, and to release dozens of bodies by judicial decisions.

In 2019, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the detention of the bodies, to be used as a bargaining chip in the future, for the purpose of exchanging them with Israeli prisoners who have been held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip since 2014.

Hamas has previously confirmed more than once that it keeps 4 Israelis inside the Gaza Strip, without revealing their fate or health status.