Gaza authorities accuse Israel of organ theft

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – Authorities in Gaza have accused Israel of stealing organs from the bodies of Palestinians and demanded an international probe.

In a statement, the Gaza-based government media office said the examination of bodies revealed that their shapes had changed significantly due to the theft of vital organs from the corpses.

It added that the Israeli army handed bodies without their names and refused to specify from where they had been seized.

The statement criticized “the silent position of the international organizations operating in Gaza, including the International Committee of the Red Cross, towards such an awful crime by the (Israeli) occupation.”

The Israeli authorities are yet to comment on the accusations.

Early on Tuesday, the Israeli authorities had released the bodies of dozens of Palestinians detained and killed by the Israeli army during its brutal ground operation.

The Health Ministry in Gaza received the bodies through the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Endowments and Religious Affairs Ministry in Gaza was in charge of their burials in mass graves, said the correspondent.

“The UN had informed us in advance of the arrival of a number of martyrs to the Gaza Strip, estimated to be around 80 bodies,” Marwan Al-Hams, the director of Mohammed Yousef El-Najar Hospital in Rafah city, told the media.

“The bodies arrived inside a container, some intact, while others were in pieces, and some others had decomposed,” he added.