Gaza: The Dead as Targets—Four Patterns of Occupation Crimes

Women Journalists Without Chains affirms that Israeli occupation forces have, for more than two years, engaged in systematic practices that violate the dignity of deceased Palestinians, as part of the ongoing genocidal campaign waged against the Gaza Strip since October 2023.

 The organization emphasizes that the treatment of Palestinian bodies is not incidental or isolated, but rather reflects an integrated policy that targets Palestinians in death as it does in life, extending the scope of collective punishment beyond killing itself. According to official statistical data issued by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza as of 13 December, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since October 2023 has reached 70,654, including 386 Palestinians killed after the entry into force of the U.S.-backed ceasefire agreement on 11 October.

Israeli policy has encompassed multiple forms of egregious and deeply disturbing violations extending to Palestinian dead and missing persons. These include the burial of bodies in shallow, unmarked graves; the deliberate desecration of cemeteries and exhumation of remains; the prolonged withholding of bodies before their return in mutilated and unidentifiable conditions, in some cases bearing indications of organ removal; and the systematic denial of families’ right to know the fate of their missing relatives—thereby entrenching the crime of enforced disappearance even beyond death.

The organization stresses that such acts constitute a consistent and deliberate criminal pattern in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the four Geneva Conventions. These violations extend beyond breaches of protections afforded to civilians and detainees, striking at the fundamental and non-derogable right to human dignity owed to the dead and the missing.

Within this framework, Women Journalists Without Chains identifies four distinct and recurring patterns that clearly expose the occupation’s policy toward Palestinian bodies—patterns that amount to grave breaches of international law and rise to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

1. Bulldozing Bodies into Unknown Graves

As the genocidal campaign continues—despite the announcement of a ceasefire—Palestinians have repeatedly discovered the remains of their relatives in shallow, improvised pits left behind by Israeli forces. In many cases, civilians and medical and rescue teams were deliberately prevented from accessing the bodies for prolonged periods, allowing time for the concealment of victims’ identities and the destruction of evidence related to war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in the context of mass killings.

Women Journalists Without Chains has reviewed multiple reports confirming the continued discovery of mass graves created by Israeli forces. These graves consist of shallow burials of Palestinian victims in public squares, open areas, and in the vicinity of hospitals, schools, critical civilian infrastructure, and even near so-called humanitarian aid distribution points designated by the occupation for a starving population.

the organization further notes that an investigation by CNN, supported by photographic and video evidence, documented Israeli forces bulldozing the bodies of civilians seeking humanitarian aid into unknown graves near a border crossing. The investigation also revealed that Israeli forces opened fire on unarmed and hungry civilians attempting to reach aid distribution centers, particularly in the area surrounding the Zikim crossing. Visual material showed partially buried corpses adjacent to an overturned aid truck, while in other instances bodies were left exposed, abandoned to decomposition.

According to CNN’s reporting, video footage from the Zikim area showed stray dogs roaming freely among the bodies. A civil defense worker confirmed that markings on the remains of aid seekers killed by Israeli fire indicated that animals had consumed parts of their bodies, underscoring the extreme degradation of human dignity and the deliberate abandonment of the dead.

2. Systematic Desecration of Cemeteries

Thousands of graves across the Gaza Strip have been bulldozed, damaged, or completely destroyed by Israeli military tanks and bulldozers, or obliterated as a result of intensive aerial bombardment. More than fifteen major cemeteries in different parts of the Strip have sustained extensive destruction, reflecting a deliberate and systematic policy rather than incidental damage linked to hostilities.

These violations have taken multiple forms, including the leveling of graves, the smashing of headstones, the conversion of cemeteries into military positions for occupation forces, and the carving of military roads through burial grounds. Israeli authorities have sought to justify these acts under the pretext of searching for alleged tunnels or the remains of so-called “hostages.” Such claims, however, lack any legal basis, are unsupported by credible evidence, and have not been substantiated by the forces carrying out these operations.

Human rights reports and direct field testimonies further indicate that occupation forces have exhumed graves, removed human remains, and appropriated the bodies of civilians killed during the genocidal war on Gaza. Local residents reported that upon returning to burial sites after the withdrawal of Israeli military machinery, they found cemeteries razed, graves destroyed, and multiple bodies stolen.

The Gaza Ministry of Endowments has described these actions as a “compound crime affecting both the living and the dead,” noting that Israeli forces continue to maintain control over approximately one-third of the cemeteries in the Strip. The Ministry’s Director General confirmed that Sheikh Radwan Cemetery, which had been closed for more than three decades, was directly bombed, with graves exhumed and remains removed.

He further revealed that the Ministry possesses detailed records documenting dozens of cemeteries where Israeli forces have completely prohibited burials. As a result, hundreds of Palestinian bodies—of civilians killed since October 2023—remain trapped beneath rubble, abandoned on roadsides, buried in shallow pits, or left in exposed areas, where they have been subjected to decay, desecration, and prolonged denial of a dignified burial.

3. Return of Bodies with Mutilated Remains

Since the ceasefire agreement and the cessation of hostilities in October 2025, Israeli occupation authorities have returned 345 bodies of Gaza residents. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, only 99 of these bodies could be positively identified by specialists and families of the missing; the remainder remain unidentified due to severe mutilation and signs of torture that irreversibly altered the victims’ features.

Women Journalists Without Chains has documented consistent testimony from multiple specialists, including the spokesperson for forensic evidence, forensic medicine personnel, and the Director General of the Ministry of Health, all of whom emphasized that each of these cases “requires the oversight of an independent international investigation committee.”

Dr. Munir al-Barsh reported that many bodies displayed evidence of extreme abuse: some were crushed by armored vehicles, others executed in the field by close-range gunshots to the head or chest, and some were returned decapitated, handcuffed, or blindfolded. Additional cases revealed precise surgical incisions consistent with professional medical tools, strongly suggesting organ theft. Dr. al-Barsh confirmed: “We observed carefully opened chests, from which hearts, livers, kidneys, and even corneas had been removed. This is not the first instance in which the occupation has perpetrated such crimes.”

Women Journalists Without Chains further notes that there remains no accurate information regarding the total number of Gaza residents’ bodies still held by Israeli authorities. Since October 2023, occupation forces have arbitrarily detained thousands of Palestinian civilians, while countless others remain missing under Israel’s policy of enforced disappearance.

Based on testimonies from former detainees and medical reports issued by the Gaza Ministry of Health, Women Journalists Without Chains affirms that examination of bodies returned through the International Committee of the Red Cross indicates that many victims were killed as a result of torture and deliberate ill-treatment.

4. Numbered Cemeteries and Morgue Refrigerators

Israeli occupation authorities continue to withhold the bodies of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, as well as Arab nationals who resisted the occupation at various times. These remains are kept in secret and highly controlled sites, commonly referred to as “Numbered Cemeteries,” and in refrigerated morgues under Israeli control.

The Numbered Cemeteries are rudimentary, isolated burial grounds, marked only by stones and devoid of headstones or personal identifiers. Each grave is designated solely by a metal plate bearing a number, with no name or biographical details. Each number corresponds to a file containing the deceased’s personal information, which is held exclusively by Israeli security authorities and systematically withheld from the victims’ families.

Due to Israel’s deliberate concealment and policy of secrecy, there is no definitive or publicly accessible record of the total number of bodies held in these sites. In response, the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center launched a national campaign in 2008 to recover the bodies of martyrs held by Israel and to investigate the fate of missing persons.

The campaign seeks to compel Israeli authorities to release the bodies of Palestinian and Arab martyrs held in Numbered Cemeteries and morgue refrigerators, allowing families to perform proper burials in accordance with Palestinian national customs and religious rites, thereby restoring both human and national dignity. The campaign also aims to uncover the fate of missing persons whose detention has been denied or concealed by the occupation.

According to the latest data provided by the national campaign as of mid-December 2025, Israel currently holds approximately 770 bodies in Numbered Cemeteries and morgue refrigerators. Of these, 514 martyrs have been held since the resumption of this policy in 2015. The figures include 256 bodies in the Numbered Cemeteries, 10 female martyrs, and 76 children under the age of 18, reflecting the ongoing scale of systematic denial of proper burial and family rights.

Compound Crimes Against Palestinians in Gaza

Women Journalists Without Chains affirms that the ongoing atrocities in the Gaza Strip reflect a deliberate and systematic policy pursued by Israeli occupation authorities, targeting Palestinians—both the living and the dead—in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, including the four Geneva Conventions, international human rights law, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Taken together, these practices constitute a compound assault on the right to life, human dignity, and the families’ fundamental right to know the fate of their missing loved ones.

Women Journalists Without Chains emphasizes that acts such as the killing of civilians and leaving their bodies exposed, bulldozing remains into shallow, unmarked pits, desecrating public cemeteries, withholding bodies, returning missing persons as mutilated corpses with organs removed, and concealing hundreds of Palestinians in Numbered Cemeteries and morgue refrigerators constitute grave violations of the duty to respect the dead and ensure their dignified burial. These actions are part of a continuum of crimes, including enforced disappearance, that Israel has systematically committed against Palestinians.

The organization calls for an urgent, independent international investigation into all crimes committed against Palestinians in Gaza. Women Journalists Without Chains urges the deployment of independent international missions, including forensic teams, with full access to burial sites, cemeteries, and relevant facilities, to document violations, uncover facts, and preserve evidence.

It also urges the international community to exert effective pressure on Israeli authorities, compelling them to fully disclose information regarding the missing, their locations, and bodies withheld or returned without identification—rights guaranteed under international law and human rights conventions.

Finally, Women Journalists Without Chains reiterates its urgent call for comprehensive international protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip and for full accountability of those responsible for these heinous crimes. It underscores that respect for human dignity extends beyond death, and that achieving justice for the victims requires holding perpetrators accountable as an essential step to uphold human rights and safeguard international peace and security.