Israel has removed 350 bodies from Gaza since war began: report

JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel has brought more than 350 bodies from the Gaza Strip since the war began on Oct. 7, the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation confirmed on Friday.

“More than 350 bodies have been transferred from Gaza to Israel since the beginning of the war for examination by the Forensic Medicine Institute in Abu Kabir to verify whether they belong to hostages,” the national broadcaster claimed, without specifying locations or graves from which the Israeli army removed the bodies.

The Israeli army has yet to respond to the report.

“In the past, the Israeli army admitted that bodies were transferred from Gaza for examination as part of an attempt to find the bodies of the kidnapped Israelis,” the broadcaster said, claiming that “bodies that did not belong to the hostages were returned to Gaza.”

It quoted the army as saying about a month ago that its forces are “carrying out search and rescue operations in the Gaza Strip, including search for the bodies of the hostages.”

The army claimed that “the bodies are identified all while preserving their dignity.”

Israel says 136 Israelis are still being held in Gaza.

Despite the International Court of Justice’s provisional ruling, Israel continues its war on Gaza where it has killed at least 27,947 Palestinians, including 12,000 children and 8,190 women, since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli offensive has left 85% of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.