Date: 27 August 2025
Press Release
On the Occasion of the National Day for the Retrieval of the Bodies of Palestinian and Arab Martyrs
Al-Dameer: The Withholding of Martyrs’ Bodies Is a Crime Against Humanity Requiring International Accountability
Every year on August 27, Palestinians commemorate the National Day for the Retrieval of the Bodies of Palestinian and Arab Martyrs, as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen public and grassroots pressure aimed at uncovering the fate of the martyrs and the missing, and to enable their families to bury them in accordance with proper religious and cultural rites.
This occasion comes amidst the ongoing crime of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, accompanied by grave violations including the exhumation of graves, the theft and transfer of bodies to areas occupied since 1948, and the continued withholding of the remains of detainees who died under torture and inhuman treatment in Israeli custody. The families of these martyrs, as well as human rights organizations, are denied any information about the fate, whereabouts, or number of those whose bodies are being held. Israeli authorities also systematically refuse to conduct autopsies, disclose causes of death, or issue official death certificates.
As part of its efforts to follow up on cases involving detainees and prisoners during the ongoing military aggression, Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights submitted official legal petitions to Israeli courts requesting the release of the bodies of nine martyrs and the issuance of death certificates or any documentation confirming their deaths in Israeli prisons and military camps. A separate petition was also submitted to the Israeli Military Prosecutor for the same purpose. As of today, no responses have been received.
According to data from the National Campaign for the Retrieval of Martyrs’ Bodies, Israel continues to withhold the remains of 726 martyrs in morgues and so-called “cemeteries of numbers”, including 256 buried in these numbered graves. Since Israel resumed this policy in 2015, 469 bodies have been withheld, including those of 67 children, 85 prisoners, and 10 women. Additionally, more than 1,500 bodies of martyrs from Gaza have been held in the “Sde Teiman” military camp since the beginning of the genocidal war in 2023. This points to the systematic and long-term nature of these violations.
Al-Dameer affirms that the policy of withholding the bodies of martyrs is an official and systematic practice, institutionalized through military orders, legislation, and judicial rulings. These allow military commanders to detain bodies and bury them temporarily as a means of exerting political pressure and bargaining in future negotiations. This practice constitutes a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, particularly Article 17 of the First Geneva Convention and Article 8 of the Second Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions. Furthermore, it may amount to a crime against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998).
In light of the above, Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights calls for:
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Urging the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Conventions to exert pressure on the occupying power to compel it to immediately release the bodies of martyrs, disclose their fates, and return them to their families for burial in accordance with religious practices.
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Calling on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to open a formal investigation into the crimes of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, the withholding of bodies, grave desecration, and the theft and mutilation of corpses committed by Israeli forces, as these constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Al-Dameer Association for Human Rights – Gaza