RAMALLAH, January 27, 2026 (WAFA) – The National Campaign for the Recovery of Martyrs' Bodies and Disclosing the Fate of the Missing confirmed on Tuesday that the Israeli occupation state continues to withhold the bodies of 776 individuals documented as hostages in cemeteries of numbers and morgues.
According to the Campaign, this figure includes 96 individuals from the captive movement, 77 children under the age of 18, and 10 females.
In a statement released today, the Campaign highlighted that while the occupation authorities recently announced the recovery of the final body of an Israeli prisoner—effectively confirming that no Israeli captives, living or dead, remain in the Gaza Strip—hundreds of Palestinian martyrs from Gaza continue to be detained.
These individuals were taken during the ongoing war of genocide, with their exact numbers and the conditions of their detention remaining unknown, the Campaign said, asserting that these actions constitute a grave and systematic violation of international humanitarian law, specifically the Geneva Conventions, which protect the dignity of living prisoners and the sanctity of the deceased.
It further condemned the occupation army for the exhumation and desecration of more than 250 bodies from cemeteries across the Gaza Strip during its recent military operations. Described as a flagrant violation of the rights of the deceased and their families, the statement argued these acts lack any legal or humanitarian justification and amount to war crimes that demand international accountability.
The statement emphasized that justice and humanity must not be selective, insisting that human rights be applied to all people without discrimination, demanding the immediate and unconditional release of all Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the handover of all withheld bodies to their families.
It also called for a permanent end to the policy of withholding bodies—a practice previously justified by the Israeli "Supreme Court" based on the presence of Israeli prisoners in Gaza.
Furthermore, the Campaign urged that international organizations, led by the International Committee of the Red Cross, be granted access to detention centers to verify prisoners’ conditions.
It called for an independent international investigation into the exhumation of graves in Gaza and for those responsible to be held accountable, urging pressure on the occupation authorities to disclose full details regarding withheld bodies and to provide data on those already returned to the Strip who remain classified as "unknown."
The Campaign warned that the international community's silence regarding these ongoing violations encourages impunity and undermines the global justice system, firmly stating: "Human dignity, whether alive or dead, is not a subject for negotiation or bargaining."
A.D./T.R.
