Palestinian bodies returned by Israel show signs of torture and execution, say doctors

Many of the 90 bodies of Palestinians returned to Gaza by Israeli authorities under the ceasefire deal showed signs of torture and execution, including blindfolds, cuffed hands and bullet wounds in the head, according to doctors’ accounts.

As part of the US-brokered truce, Hamas has handed over the bodies of some of the hostages who died in the course of the war, and Israel has transferred two groups of 45 Palestinians killed during the fighting. The exchange was carried out through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Doctors at Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, which received the Palestinian bodies from the ICRC, said on Wednesday there was substantial evidence of beatings and summary executions, and that none of the bodies were identifiable.

“Almost all of them had been blindfolded, and had been bound up and they had gunshots between the eyes. Almost all of them had been executed,” said Dr Ahmed al-Farra, the head of Nasser hospital’s paediatric department. “There were also scars and discoloured patches of skin showing they had been beaten before being killed. There were also signs that their bodies had been abused after they were killed.”

Farra added that the bodies had been handed over by the Israeli authorities with no identification, and the hospitals in Gaza, heavily bombed over the course of two years of war, had no means of doing DNA analysis.

“They know the identity of these bodies but they want the families to suffer even more about these victims,” the doctor said. Nasser hospital authorities said the bodies, which had been kept in refrigerators in Israel, were returned with numbered labels but no names. Doctors said they were asking relatives of missing Palestinian men to help identify the bodies.

The Israel Defense Forces referred an inquiry on the allegations to the Israel Prison Service, which the Guardian has approached for comment.

The international criminal court is investigating war crime allegations by both sides in the two-year Gaza war, including the killing of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers whose bodies were found in a shallow grave in March. Hospital authorities said the victims in that case had had their hands and feet bound and had been shot in the head.

The return of bodies by both sides in the conflict has proved a major stumbling block in implementation of the ceasefire that came into effect over the weekend. Israel announced it would slow down the supply of humanitarian aid entering Gaza because of delays in the transfer of 28 bodies of Israel hostages believed to have been killed during the war, and said that one of the bodies which had been handed over was not one of the hostages.