Israel is currently holding the bodies of 676 Palestinians in secret burial sites known as “Cemeteries of Numbers” and in refrigeration units, according to the National Campaign for the Retrieval of Palestinian War Victims’ Bodies.
The campaign reported that Israeli forces recently killed three Palestinians in Jenin and are withholding their bodies, adding to the growing number of corpses being held. Among the 676 bodies are 71 detainees, 60 children, and nine women.
The “Cemeteries of Numbers” are unmarked graves marked only with metal plates and numbers, which correspond to files kept by Israeli security authorities. This practice allows Israel to withhold Palestinian bodies for potential use in future negotiations, a policy upheld by the Israeli Supreme Court in 2019.
Some of these bodies date back to the 1960s and 1970s. However, the campaign noted that the data does not include bodies from Gaza due to limited information, although 325 bodies from Gaza have been returned over the years.
The situation has intensified since Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which began on October 7, 2023. The assault killed at least 48,380 Palestinians, mostly women and children. A ceasefire has been in place since January 19, but Israeli attacks on the occupied West Bank have continued, killing over 60 Palestinians and displacing more than 40,000.
Human rights groups and Palestinian activists are calling for international pressure on Israel to release the bodies and allow families to give their loved ones a dignified burial.