Gaza forensic experts accuse Israel of stealing organs from dead Palestinians

BarcelonaForensic experts who have examined the bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel as part of the ceasefire in Gaza report that they are severely mutilated, show signs of torture, or are missing organs. Health authorities in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, claim that full autopsies have not been possible due to a lack of resources and extreme conditions, but assert that the signs they have observed are consistent with organ harvesting, which, if confirmed, would violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, prohibiting deaths in times of war.

The Gaza Ministry of Health has shown this newspaper some twenty photographs of bodies in advanced states of decomposition, burned, or frozen. Given the blockade preventing access to the Gaza Strip for observers and the international press, the ministry and Palestinian human rights organizations are calling for an international investigation and the entry of specialized teams to identify the bodies, establish the causes of death, and verify the accusation of organ harvesting without consent.

So far, 330 bodies have been received, of which only 90 have been identified by their families. The Palestinian bodies were delivered in several batches (at a rate of 15 for every Israeli death returned by Hamas) through the Kerem Shalom crossing in refrigerated trucks, piled in plastic shrouds. Although they come from Israeli prisons, the bodies are only identified by a number, and since Gaza lacks the equipment to carry out DNA testing, the only recourse is to try to get their families to identify them.

Dr. Munir al-Bursh, Gaza's Director General of Health, explained to ARA that "the bodies are in horrific condition: some still have their hands bound with chains and their eyes blindfolded, or show signs of torture, such as burns on the skin that don't match the description." During the autopsies, Al-Bursh asserts that forensic experts have found missing organs: "There are bodies with an incision from the neck to the pubis, where the sternum has been cut to open the ribcage: the heart, kidneys, or liver are missing." Al-Bursh maintains that this incision cannot be from any surgical procedure, but rather from an organ harvesting operation. They have also found traces of liquid nitrogen, which is used to preserve organs. "I am a direct witness. I personally take responsibility for what I am saying, and we have it documented in photographs," the doctor declares.

It is impossible to verify these accusations without the intervention of the international team that Al-Bursh is requesting. Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah, rector of the University of Glasgow, who has worked in Gaza on several occasions, has seen the autopsy photographs and reached the same conclusion, as he explained in detail in a televised interview on Al Jazeera. "The photos show bodies opened from top to bottom with an electric saw cutting through the ribcage: this way the organs can be removed without damaging them." He also confirms the burns on the skin are consistent with traces of liquid nitrogen. Abu Sittah recommends waiting to bury the bodies and preserving them in liquid nitrogen to preserve the evidence until the international teams arrive with specialized equipment.

Difficult identification

According to Al-Bursh, the 90 cases in which relatives were able to identify the bodies were thanks to small details: "One woman recognized her husband by the wedding ring he wore on his finger with her name on it; another only by the soles of his shoes, which were new because he was arrested the day he had worn them for the first time." After that, the bodies were buried without any further tests being performed. Out of respect for the living and the dead, the Gazan ministry showed photographs on a screen to those searching for their detained relatives, instead of displaying the bodies. Due to a lack of energy and space to store the refrigerated bodies—the International Committee of the Red Cross had moved them from hospitals to chambers previously used for storing fish—the Hamas government decided to bury 120 bodies in such poor condition that it was impossible to discern any identifying details. "Everything has been recorded: a body crushed by a tank, more than one still with their hands bound in chains, their eyes blindfolded and burned not by bombings but by torture."

The precedents

Since the First Intifada in 1987, Israel has been accused of organ theft, something Tel Aviv has always denied; and no conclusive proof has ever been found. In a November 2023 report, teams from the NGO Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor in Gaza reported that the Israeli army had seized dozens of bodies of Palestinians killed in hospitals and combat zones, especially in the vicinity of the Al-Shifa medical complex, the Indonesian hospital, and the highway. According to this organization, when some of these bodies were returned, they were missing organs such as corneas, cochleae, livers, kidneys, and hearts. In 2000, Israeli pathologist Yehuda Hiss, director of the Abu Kabir National Institute of Forensic Medicine, admitted in an interview with American anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes that corneas and skin had been harvested from both Israeli and Palestinian soldiers without the families' consent. Hiss was removed from his post, and the Israeli army confirmed the organ harvesting but claimed it had ended in 1990. Later, Israel was implicated in several international organ trafficking scandals, and according to a 2020 European Parliament report, the international organ trade initially reached Eastern Europe and later expanded to other regions. The same report stated that Israel played a key role in the trade, which extended to Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Kosovo, the United States, Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador, and Colombia.

In 2008, the Israeli Parliament banned the purchase and sale of human organs. The European Parliament notes that the illegal transplant industry has continued to thrive globally in recent years, but that Israel's role—along with the Philippines and Pakistan—as a hub for the organ trade has been taken over by new countries, including Costa Rica, Colombia, Vietnam, Lebanon, and Egypt. Even so, in 2014, an investigation by the New York Times Regarding international organ trafficking, the report concluded, after following the case of a 36-year-old Israeli woman who had purchased a kidney in Costa Rica, that "Israelis play a disproportionate role." According to the newspaper, "this is partly due to religious restrictions on death and desecration, which have kept donation rates from deceased donors so low that some patients feel they must seek alternatives elsewhere."