Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC) expresses its deepest outrage and strongest condemnation of the horrific crime revealed by the Gaza Ministry of Health

upon receiving 150 bodies of Palestinians previously detained by Israeli occupation forces—individuals who had disappeared since the onset of Israel’s genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip.

Preliminary forensic examinations uncovered overwhelming evidence of torture and execution: bodies bearing rope marks, crushed bones, gunshot wounds fired at close range, and severe burns. Many of the victims were found blindfolded and bound with plastic restraints, their treatment revealing not only a total disregard for human life but a deliberate policy of humiliation and extermination.

The Director-General of Gaza’s Ministry of Health reported that the bodies “were bound like animals, blindfolded, and bore unmistakable signs of torture and horrific burns that expose the scale of atrocities committed in secrecy.” Only 25 of the victims have so far been identified; the remaining 125 are unrecognizable due to deliberate disfigurement and decomposition. Forensic experts also documented crushed limbs and torsos, consistent with being run over by armored vehicles.

WJWC recalls previous medical findings that revealed evidence of organ theft from the bodies of Palestinian detainees—an appalling practice constituting yet another war crime under international law. The organization further noted that Israel’s ongoing blockade and the deliberate targeting of Gaza’s medical institutions have severely obstructed forensic investigations and victim identification, prolonging the agony of grieving families still searching for their loved ones.

Weaponizing the Dead

WJWC condemns in the strongest possible terms Israel’s continued weaponization of Palestinian bodies as instruments of political leverage. This grotesque practice is rooted in the “unified policy” officially adopted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in January 2017 and upheld by Israel’s Supreme Court. The policy authorizes the military to retain bodies, desecrate them, and impose degrading restrictions on their release.

Dozens of bodies are currently held in refrigeration units at Israel’s National Center for Forensic Medicine, with their release conditioned on inhumane requirements such as nighttime burials, bans on public funerals, and the delivery of mutilated or frozen remains. A Haaretz report published in July 2025 revealed that approximately 1,500 bodies from Gaza are being held at the Sde Teiman military camp.

According to the Palestinian National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of Martyrs, Israel continues to detain the remains of at least 479 Palestinians, including 256 buried in secret military graveyards known as “cemeteries of numbers.” These sites, established in the late 1960s, strip victims of identity and dignity, replacing names with numbered plaques and withholding all records from families—a policy of erasure emblematic of Israel’s systematic dehumanization of Palestinians.

Between Death and Disappearance

Since the outbreak of the genocide in Gaza in October 2023, at least 79 Palestinian detainees have died in Israeli prisons, including 46 from Gaza, while hundreds remain forcibly disappeared. Israeli authorities continue to conceal their fate in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

WJWC affirms that these fatal abuses and disappearances form part of a broader policy of extermination against the Palestinian people. The physical evidence recovered from the returned bodies, coupled with testimonies from released detainees, provides irrefutable proof of torture, execution, and systematic ill-treatment.

Starvation, denial of medical care, and sustained physical abuse have left thousands of detainees disabled or chronically ill. More than 10,500 Palestinians remain imprisoned under conditions that violate their most fundamental rights to life, health, and dignity—conditions demanding immediate international intervention.

Testimonies from Released Detainees

Eyewitness accounts from released prisoners shed light on the machinery of cruelty inside Israeli detention centers. Journalist Shadi Abu Sidou of Palestine Today described: “Prison was all torture—all beatings, all hanging. They broke my hand and ribs, and struck my head and eyes because I was a photojournalist. They told me my family was dead—only to find them alive when I was released.”

Former detainee Najy Al-Jaafrawi testified: “We spent 100 days shackled hand and foot, blindfolded, and were allowed to use the toilet once every two days. Guards trampled on us for sport.”

Haitham Salem discovered that his wife and children had been killed, while Mohammed Shafiq Abu Shawish lost seven members of his family, including both parents.

These accounts are not isolated—they reflect a deliberate, systematic campaign of dehumanization designed to break the Palestinian people both physically and psychologically.

Systematic Patterns of Abuse

WJWC has documented numerous cases of public humiliation, torture, and sexual violence against Palestinian detainees—many corroborated by images and videos shared by Israeli soldiers themselves. Palestinian women have testified to sexual assault and coercive abuse during interrogation and detention.

In several documented instances, Israel’s National Security Minister appeared in videos mocking and mistreating detainees, illustrating that such violations are not aberrations but manifestations of an institutionalized culture of impunity and sadism.

WJWC stresses that these acts constitute flagrant violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949), particularly Articles 27, 32, and 33, which explicitly prohibit torture, cruel treatment, and outrages upon personal dignity. The evidence of mutilation, enforced disappearance, and extrajudicial killing confirms the existence of a systematic policy amounting to genocide.

WJWC’s Urgent Demands

Women Journalists Without Chains calls upon the international community, the United Nations, and all competent human rights bodies to:

1. Launch an immediate, independent international investigation—under UN supervision—into Israel’s crimes against Palestinian detainees and the desecration of their remains.
2. Ensure full legal accountability for Israeli political and military officials responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, which are not subject to any statute of limitation.
3. Guarantee unrestricted access for Palestinian and international medical and human rights organizations to Gaza for the purpose of forensic documentation and evidence gathering.
4. End Israel’s unlawful detention of Palestinian bodies and secure their immediate, dignified return to their families in accordance with international norms and humanitarian law.

A Call to Conscience

What has been revealed in Gaza is not merely an accumulation of crimes—it is a revelation of a policy that seeks to erase a people. Each bound hand, each blindfolded face, each mutilated body is a testament to a human life extinguished and a collective conscience tested.

Women Journalists Without Chains warns that silence in the face of such crimes amounts to complicity. The time for moral hesitation has passed. The international community must act—decisively and immediately—to uphold justice, protect human dignity, and prevent the normalization of genocide.

Released by:

Women Journalists Without Chains (WJWC)

October 21, 2025