JENIN, Tuesday, December 3, 2019 (WAFA) – The family of prisoner Sami Abu Diak, who recently died from cancer while in Israeli custody, called on human rights and humanitarian institutions to promptly intervene and pressure the Israeli authorities to release his body for burial, and not to withhold his body in mortuary fridges or bury him in the ‘cemeteries of numbers’.

Abu Diak’s father, ‘Ahed, stressed during a meeting with deputy mayor of Jenin, Kamal Abu al-Rub, the need to act before the Israeli court takes a decision regarding his son’s body, stressing that his family is going through a difficult time following the death of their son due to medical negligence by the Israeli prison service.

The Deputy mayor affirmed continued efforts with relevant authorities to ensure the continuation of popular events demanding the release of Abu Diak’s body.

The National Campaign for Retrieval of the Bodies of Palestinian and Arab War Victims held by Israel in an open letter sent to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on September 5, said that since 1967, Israel has applied an inconsistent policy of refusing to deliver the mortal remains of hundreds of Palestinian combatants to their families.”

The dead were buried in what Israel refers to as “cemeteries for enemy combatants,” in mass clandestine graves located in areas designated as closed military zones and referred to as “cemeteries of numbers,” since the deceased are buried there anonymously with numbers etched onto metal placards attached to their corpses or remains.

T.R.