Fatah, a major Palestinian faction, said Monday that Israel has withheld corps of 150 Palestinians in what it termed ‘ numbers graveyards’, calling for pressuring Israel to hand them over to the Palestinian side.
Fatah, a major Palestinian faction, said Monday that Israel has withheld corps of 150 Palestinians in what it termed ‘ numbers graveyards’, calling for pressuring Israel to hand them over to the Palestinian side.
The movement in the West Bank city of Nablus affirmed that the Israeli ‘occupation’ authorities have used to withholding dead bodies of Palestinian resistance fighters in special morgues since 1965.
Fatah considered such an Israeli practice as a unique means of collective punishment for the ‘martyrs’’ (dead) families, thus violating all international humanitarian norms.
In a related issue, Fatah also called for resolving the problem of 39 Palestinian deportees, who have been expelled by Israel out of the Palestinian territories.
The Palestinian faction emphasized the need to wrap up these two files once and for all, given their significance from a humanitarian perspective.
Fatah’s plea comes amidst potential prisoner swap deal between Israel and the Palestinians, through which Palestinian resistance factions have demanded the release of about 1,000 to 1,300 prisoners in exchange for Gil’ad Shalit, a captured Israeli soldier held in Gaza for the past 10 months.
