Article 130 of the Geneva Convention of 1949 stipulates that graves must be respected and maintained.
Israeli forces stole the bodies of 150 Palestinians from the Al-Tuffah cemetery in Gaza after digging up and bulldozing 1,100 graves, the Strip’s government media office said in a statement on Saturday.
Gaza’s authorities said the bodies were kidnapped to unknown locations, suspecting that Israeli occupation forces would steal their organs.
The Gaza media office said the findings are a new addition “to the series of the occupation’s crimes during its genocidal war against the Palestinian people”. The statement noted that Israeli forces previously carried out similar crimes in Gaza.
Gaza’s government had revealed on December 26 that Israel returned 80 corpses, some of which had signs of organ theft and other alterations. The Israeli occupation forces had refused to disclose the sources of the bodies.
A Euro-Med report revealed on December 14 that the Israeli forces “repeatedly targeted several cemeteries in the Gaza Strip” based on field documentation. It found that the Israeli soldiers dug up graves and possibly stole the organs of several bodies.
“Large holes have been created inside these cemeteries as a result of frequent Israeli attacks, engulfing dozens of graves. The remains of some dead bodies have been scattered or disappeared, while dozens of graves remain seriously damaged,” the European watchdog said at the time.
The Israeli crime is another violation of international humanitarian law by Israel against Palestinians. and the rules of war in relation to the protection of cemeteries during armed conflicts.
Article 130 of the Geneva Convention of 1949 stipulates that graves must be respected and maintained.
There are more than 120 mass graves across Gaza as medics and families have run out of places to bury their loved ones under the ongoing Israeli genocide.
Since October 7, Israel has killed at least 22,835 Palestinians in Gaza while injuring 58,416 others, according to the latest figures by the Strip’s health authorities.
Multiple past reports have revealed Israel’s troubling record of organ theft from Palestinian corpses.
Israeli doctor Meira Weiss, author of “Over Their Dead Bodies”, revealed that Israel stole organs from dead Palestinians between 1996 and 2002 for medical research at Israeli institutions and transplant purposes.
Yehuda Hess, former director of Israel’s Abu Kabir Institute of Forensic Medicine, admitted to the unauthorised use of tissues and organs from deceased Palestinians.
A 2008 CNN investigation implicated Israel as a significant player in the illegal global trade in human organs, with allegations of organ theft from deceased Palestinians.
A harrowing 2014 Israeli Channel 10 investigation revealed the Israeli theft of Palestinians’ skin for its “Skin Bank,” providing samples for skin grafting or transplantation operations. The investigation included confessions by top officials about taking organs from the bodies of dead Palestinians and African workers to treat Israelis.
