NABLUS, October 9, 2011 (WAFA) – The Israeli government Sunday returned remains of the Palestinian fighter Hafiz Muhammad Abu Zant killed in a battle against Israelis in 1976 to the Palestinian Authority, which delivered them to his family for proper burial.

After being held for 35 years, the remains of Abu Zant were handed over to the Palestinians at Qalqilia checkpoint, north of the West Bank,

A number of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) members attended Abu Zant’s military funeral. His remains will be buried on Monday in Nablus.

Abu Zant, who was born in 1954 in the city of Nablus, was part of an armed Palestinian group. He was killed in 1976 in a military operation against Israeli soldiers near al-Hamra checkpoint in the Jordan Valley.

Israel has kept his body since then in unidentified cemetery in the north of the country and had refused to release it.

To be noted, Israel is still holding around 350 bodies of Palestinians killed in battles against Israelis over the last 40 years, according to the National Campaign to Recover Bodies of Martyrs.

Israel had agreed two months ago to release remains of around 100 of the Palestinians it was keeping in what became to be known as “numbers cemeteries,” but retracted its decision after news of the deal broke.

M.H./F.R.