I Cannot Unsee the Photos of the Tortured Palestinian Hostages Returned by Israel
Where is the outrage, the coverage even, of the mutilated Palestinian bodies, with crushed legs and gunshot wounds to the head, that the Israelis finally released as part of this 'ceasefire' deal?
For nearly three weeks, we have heard by-the-minute news about the retrieval of Israeli bodies in Gaza. International rescue teams have been sent into Gaza, not to help retrieve the more than 10,000 bodies (a conservative figure) of Palestinians – including babies, children, the elderly – but to retrieve the remains of last Israelis, whom, it is known, including by Israelis, are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve because they are trapped beneath rubble due to two years of non-stop Israeli bombardment. Meanwhile, the population of Gaza remains starved, collectively punished, until the last of the Israeli bodies is retrieved and confirmed. But while we see New York Times “breaking news” alerts on Israeli bodies, little attention has been paid to obvious signs of torture that Palestinians held by Israel endured before being returned to Gaza for burial, or to the sheer number of Palestinian bodies held by Israel.
Under the so-called “ceasefire agreement,” for every dead Israeli handed over to Israel, Israel would, in turn, return the remains of 15 Palestinians. To date, Israel has returned some 300 Palestinians, but without providing the names of the deceased. Due to Israel’s bombing of the forensic labs, all of the identification is being done by hand, a laborious job. Israel had, of course, failed to place the bodies in refrigerators, so the bodies arrived decomposed. And also mutilated. As Palestinian bodies are brought to Gaza, their family members wait to find out whether their loved ones are among the dead, trapped under the rubble, or still held hostage in Israel.
I obtained pictures of some of the Palestinian bodies that have been returned – pictures that I wish I had not seen and now cannot unsee.