The Israeli occupation authorities (IOA) decided not to return to the Palestinians the body of martyr Nasser Abu Hamid, the prisoner who died of cancer on Tuesday at Assaf Harofeh Hospital after his exposure to long months of medical neglect.
Cancer-stricken Nasser Abu Hamid, 50, was pronounced dead on Tuesday morning after battling cancer for long months in Israeli detention.
Israeli occupation continues to withhold the remains of 11 Palestinian prisoners died in Israeli prisons in a form of collective punishment inflicted on grieving families.
The 11 remains belong to: Anis Dawla (whose body has been held since 1980), Aziz Owaisat (since 2018), Faris Baroud (since 2019), Nassar Taqatqa (since 2019), Bassam Al-Sayeh (since 2019), Saadi Al-Gharabli (since 2020), and Kamal Abu Waar (since 2020), Sami Al-Amour (since 2021), Daoud Al-Zubaidi (since May 2022), Muhammad Maher Turkman (since October 2022), and Nasser Abu Hamid.
According to Palestinian estimates, Israel has been holding the bodies of 117 slain Palestinians in Israeli morgues including the bodies of 12 children, while 256 others are withheld at the infamous “cemeteries of numbers”.
The Israeli policy of withholding slain Palestinians’ bodies is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian laws and norms, mainly the international covenant against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The practice of withholding the bodies of Palestinians killed by the Israeli army has been repeatedly challenged by human rights organisations especially that the Fourth Geneva Convention requires that parties to the conflict facilitate enquiries by persons looking for family members dispersed or killed by the conflict.
