Israel hands over bodies of Palestinians killed in Gaza for burial

GAZA: Israel on Tuesday handed over to Palestinian authorities the bodies of dozens of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza war in recent weeks, health officials in the Palestinian enclave said.

The bodies, which had been held in Israel, were handed over through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom crossing and will be buried in mass graves in the city of Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip, the officials said.

The health ministry in Gaza did not immediately say how many bodies had been handed over, but residents put the number at around 100.

Israel, which began a military offensive in Gaza after Palestinian militants from the coastal enclave went on the rampage in southern Israel on October 7, last year, did not immediately comment on the handover.

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The bodies arrived at an open space in Rafah where workers and medics waited next to a long line of newly dug graves. The bodies, wrapped in blue plastic bags, were transferred to the location in a cooler truck.

Palestinian health officials said the bodies were of Palestinians who had been killed by Israeli forces during their offensive and whose corpses had been dug up and taken to Israel before Tuesday’s transfer. Israel did not immediately comment on this assertion.