Gaza: Israel stealing organs from Palestinians it killed in Gaza, report

Israel is harvesting organs from the Palestinians it has killed in Gaza, according to the Palestinian authorities in the Gaza Sector

Authorities in Gaza have accused Israel of harvesting organs from the bodies of Palestinians it has killed in the besieged enclave and demanded an international probe, Anadolu reports.

The Government Media Office said that after examination, several bodies that had been returned by Israel showed that their shapes had changed significantly due to the theft of vital organs from the corpses.

The report said the Israeli army handed over bodies without the names of the victims and refused to specify where the Palestinians had been detained.

The media office also said Israeli occupation forces have also exhumed the bodies of Palestinians from graveyards during its brutal attack on Gaza since 7 October.

Amid these reports on Israeli violations,
the UN special rapporteur on Palestine last week slammed Israel’s decision to deny visa to UN staff, saying “baseless attacks” on the organization prove “moral cowardice”, reported Anadolu Agency.

She added, and called for a cease-fire in Gaza, release of Israeli hostages and arbitrarily detained Palestinians, reconstruction and end of occupation of Palestinian territories.

Cohen had said, “We will no longer remain silent in the face of the UN’s hypocrisy!” and that he instructed the Foreign Ministry “not to extend the visa of one of the organization’s employees in Israel, and to deny the visa request of another employee.”

The conduct of the UN since 7 October, he said, is a “disgrace to the organization and the international community” and that “We will stop working with those who cooperate with the Hamas terrorist organization’s propaganda.”

Cohen accused UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has criticized Hamas but said the October attack did not happen in a vacuum, for legitimizing “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

He said the UN human rights commissioner “publishes unsubstantiated blood libels,” and called UN Women “an organization that for two months ignored the acts of rape committed against Israeli women.”

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on 7 October, killing more than 20,700 people, including UN staffers. It has attacked hospitals, UN schools as well as refugee camps and has justified its actions saying they were used by Hamas.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

Human rights organizations have slammed Israel for its war tactics, calling it “collective punishment” of Gaza’s 2.3 million people.

The UN Palestinian refugee agency said last Sunday that 142 employees had been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since 7 October, Anadolu Agency reports.

“In this somber moment, it’s hard to wish those celebrating ‘Merry Christmas’, with ongoing loss, grief and destruction,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said in a statement.

“Our teams are doing the impossible to help people in need. We mourn the loss of more UNRWA colleagues killed in Gaza, now 142, the majority with their families,” it added.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Hamas on 7 October, killing at least 20,424 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 54,036 others, according to health authorities in the enclave.

The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins with half of the coastal territory’s housing stock damaged or destroyed, and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely-populated enclave amid shortages of food and clean water.