An-Najah News - After the Israeli announcment by the Israel’s security cabinet that it would not allow the return of the bodies of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces to their families for burial Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel which represents many myertors family said about the cabinet’s decision:

"The Israeli security cabinet’s decision to withhold the bodies of Palestinians is extremely problematic and is driven clearly by motivations for vengeance. 

The policy of using human bodies as bargaining chips violates the most basic universal values and international law which prohibit cruel and inhuman treatment.

This is an extreme and barbaric policy and there is no country in the world that would adopt it. 

Israel’s Supreme Court will now demand an examination of Israel’s continued withholding of bodies and seek the legal justification for the continued suffering of Palestinian families affected by this decision. 

The United Nations Committee Against Torture called on Israel in June 2016 to take all necessary steps to return bodies to families for burial as soon as possible.

Palestinians killed by Israelis, are kept in numbered graves in cemeteries in the north of Israel, some withheld since the start of the Israeli occupation in 1967.