Day after another, Israeli atrocities committed against the oppressed people of Gaza are being uncovered. Throughout the brutal war, today in its 109th day, Gazans have been informing about acts of savagery against both living and dead people in the war-torn besieged strip.
In the latest heinousness, Israeli occupation forces have been destroying the cemeteries in Gaza and desecrating the deceased people’s final resting place, with Gaza residents reporting that some corpses of their beloved ones have been stolen.
Desecration of at Least 16 Cemeteries in Gaza
In a report on January 20, the CNN reported that the Israeli military has destroyed at least 16 cemeteries in Gaza, citing satellite imagery and social media footage.
Gravestones in Gaza have been ruined and the ground overturned. In some cases, bodies have been unearthed, CNN reported.
Based on its examination of satellite pictures and videos, the US news network concluded that in other situations, the Israeli occupation army appears to have utilized graves as military outposts, with bulldozers converting many graveyards into staging grounds.
Legal experts quoted in the report emphasized that deliberately destroying religious sites like cemeteries and turning them into military targets violates international law, suggesting that the Israeli occupation’s actions could be considered war crimes.
“There’s huge symbolic meaning to the notion that not even the dead are left in peace,” Janina Dill, co-director at Oxford University’s Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict, told CNN.
The CNN investigative report detailed incidents such as the removal of bodies from graves, underscoring profound disrespect for the deceased and raising serious concerns about human rights violations.
The recent report has shed light on the Israeli occupation army’s illicit activities, including organ harvesting which is considered a severe violation of human rights and international law.
“Israel Harvesting Organs from Victims’ Bodies”
In the same context, a British doctor has supported accusations that the Israeli occupation have been harvesting organs from dead people in Gaza.
The British doctor said that the medics from the Palestinian Red Crescent have recorded incidents of organ harvesting in Gaza, noting that the Zionist entity itself had acknowledged it has the largest skin bank in the world.
“Investigation into Israeli Holding of Dead Bodies”
Earlier in November (2023), Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor expressed concerns about possible organ theft from Palestinian corpses, citing reports by medical professionals in Gaza who examined some bodies after they were released by the Israeli occupation.
The NGO said it has documented Israeli occupation forces confiscating dozens of dead bodies from the Al-Shifa and Indonesian hospitals in northern Gaza, alongside others in the south.
It reported that medical professionals found vital organs, such as livers, kidneys and hearts, alongside cochleas and corneas were missing.
The Euro-Med Monitor described the Zionist entity as one of the “world’s biggest hubs for the illegal trade of human organs under the pretext of ‘security deterrence’”.
It urged Tel Aviv to abide by international law and reiterated the “necessity of respecting and protecting the bodies of the dead during armed conflicts.”
According to a 2008 investigation by the CNN network, the Zionist entity is thought to be the biggest hub for the illegal global trade in human organs.
“Largest Skin Bank”
Reports have emerged in recent years that ‘Israel’ is unlawfully using Palestinian corpses.
An investigation conducted and aired by Israeli Channel 10 in 2014, high-ranking Israeli officials admitted that skin was taken from the bodies of dead Palestinians and African workers to treat Israelis, such as soldiers with burn injuries.
In it, the director of the Israeli Skin Bank revealed the country’s reserve of “human skin” reached 17 square meters – a huge number relative to the population of the occupation entity.
When asked about the number of those who apply to skin donation, she answered that the number is so low, in a clear indication that attributes to the high number of human skin reserve.
More Confessions
Such confessions match with previous ones made by Israeli pathologist and anthropologist who admitted to such violation.
In an interview in 2000, which was released to Israeli Channel 2 and broadcast in 2009, Dr. Yehuda Hiss, former head of the Abu Kabir forensic institute acknowledged that the Israeli occupation harvested organs from bodies of dead Palestinians in the 1990s without permission of family members.
“We started to harvest corneas for various hospitals in Israel,” Hiss said in the interview on Israeli Channel 2 network.
“Whatever was done was highly informal. No permission was asked from the families,” he said.
In her book Over Their Dead Bodies, Israeli doctor Meira Weiss, who conducted research in the Israeli Forensic Institute, said that organs were taken from dead Palestinians between 1996 and 2002 and used in medical research at Israeli universities and transplanted into Israeli patients’ bodies.
Source: Al-Manar English Website
