Israel 'Graciously' Returns Emptied Caskets to Gaza
Reuters, via Al-Monitor, reports Israel has delivered a 'first batch' of Palestinian bodies to Gaza. The phrasing 'released by Israel' is peculiar, as if death itself requires a permit. This comes after months where the Israeli government has taken hundreds of bodies, not just of combatants, but often with little explanation or transparency, sometimes for forensic examination and DNA extraction
without families' consent—a practice going back decades that Human Rights Watch condemned as 'inhumane' as early as 2008. The Israeli government's own military rabbinate has admitted to burying Palestinian bodies in 'enemy combatant graves' within Israel in the past. It appears even in death, Palestinians struggle for autonomy. One might wonder at the macabre charity of returning corpses, stripped
and often mutilated, after holding them for months. Is this truly 'release,' or simply a grotesque transaction, a chilling reminder of control extending even to the deceased? How many more indignities must be inflicted before the world stops framing these as anything but a fundamental denial of dignity?