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Ramallah: As Israeli forces and protesters clashed in the city’s north on Tuesday, demanding the release of the bodies of Palestinians who died in custody at the Qalandia checkpoint, at least 11 people were hurt.
Reports say, dozens of Palestinians marched from the Al-Amari refugee camp in the south of Ramallah toward the checkpoint, and soldiers fired bullets and used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, medics treated a young man who appeared to have been shot in the leg with explosive bullets. Eight people were treated for tear gas inhalation, and two were burned after being struck by gas canisters.
Families of people who died while detained in Israeli prisons, as well as civil society representatives, marched in the protest. It followed a similar event earlier this week at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. According to reports, Israeli soldiers are holding the bodies of 17 Palestinians from the city who died recently in detention.
Those who advocate for the return of bodies and information about the whereabouts of missing people say that Israeli authorities have held the bodies of 256 Palestinians in so-called “graves of numbers” and 117 in refrigerators since Israel resumed its policy of kidnapping bodies in October 2015.
Furthermore, Palestinians claim that 68 people have gone missing since the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967, with their fates unknown. The Israeli authorities assert that they do not know anything about them.
Protesters demanded that the international community hold Israel accountable, describing the refusal to return bodies as collective punishment and a violation of international human rights laws.
According to them, Israeli authorities are holding the bodies of dozens of former detainees in order to put pressure on Hamas to release four Israeli soldiers who have gone missing in Gaza.
Reportedly, five women and 11 prisoners who died in custody are among those whose bodies have been withheld in Jerusalem. The most recent death was that of Abu Hamid, a Fatah member who died of lung cancer on December 20 at Israel’s Asaf Harofeh Hospital.
According to Ahmed Ghuneim, a Fatah leader in Jerusalem, the protests will continue because Israel will not voluntarily release the bodies. He stated that the Palestinian Authority should make combined efforts to force Israeli authorities to hand them over, including legal action in international courts.
“Detaining the bodies of the occupied people after their death is something that no country in the world has done, and the silence about it has made Israel believe that its behavior and conduct is normal and acceptable,” he told an Arab media representative.
The families of prisoners who passed away in Israeli prisons cannot obtain death certificates from the Israeli government, nor can they obtain a list of those who are still being held.
According to Dana Ben Shimon, a senior reporter for the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom, Israeli authorities are withholding bodies in order to gain leverage in future prisoner exchange negotiations.
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