GENEVA: Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages to the Red Cross Thursday, while the head of the United Nations criticized what he called the bodies parade in Gaza, saying that this decision stolen from the law international.
The bodies of the Israeli child Kfir Bibas and his 4 -year -old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas during his attack on October 7, 2023, were transported to Israel. The bodies of the mother of children Shiri Bibas and a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, were also delivered.
During the transfer, an activist stood next to a poster of a man standing on coffins wrapped in Israeli flags. He said “the return of war = the return of your prisoners to coffins”. The Red Cross staff brandished white screens to try to hide large coffins.
“Under international law, any transfer of the remains of the deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, guaranteeing respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families,” said the head of rights From the UN Volker Turk in a statement sent by e-mail in response to Reuters’ questions.
The hostage outings led by Hamas from the ceasefire on January 19 were characterized by large public ceremonies in the middle of the ruins of Gaza and were criticized. “These operations should be carried out in private by the greatest respect for the deceased,” said the ICRC.
Hamas said in November 2023 that the boys and their mother had been killed in an Israeli air strike. The attack led by Hamas in Israel killed some 1,200 people, according to Israeli accounts, with 251 kidnapped. The military campaign of Israel killed some 48,000 people.
Thursday’s transfer of body will be followed by the return of six living hostages on Saturday, in exchange for hundreds of other Palestinians, who should be women and minors owned by Israeli forces in Gaza during the war.
