Israel Is Holding the Bodies of Palestinians As ‘Bargaining Chips’

Israel is holding the bodies of over 100 Palestinians who have died in its custody since October 2023 as “future bargaining chips”, a new report by Tel Aviv-based human rights group Gisha has found. 

At least 68 of the 104 Palestinians who died or were killed in Israeli detention are from Gaza.  

As well as being unable to bury their loved ones, bereaved families are also denied accurate information about how they died.

Withholding corpses is considered a form of collective punishment against Palestinians and a violation of international law by legal experts and rights groups.

Israel has previously claimed it was holding Palestinian bodies for the purpose of hostage negotiations. However, there are no Israeli captives remaining in the Gaza Strip. 

Gisha’s 8 July report, Abuse of the Dead, details a case where Israel admitted it was holding onto a detainee’s body until a new policy is made regarding hostages and missing persons.

Gisha states: “The authorities effectively acknowledge that they are holding bodies as bargaining chips” – a move that “lacks legal basis and constitutes arbitrary punishment of bereaved families”. 

Israel is currently detaining over 9,000 Palestinians on what it defines as “security” grounds – the majority from the West Bank and Gaza – as of July 2026. Approximately eight in ten are being held without trial and have not been convicted of any crime. 

This figure does not include Palestinians held by the Israeli military, around which there is no transparency. 

Palestinians in Israeli detention are routinely subjected to torture, abuse, starvation, sexual violence and denial of medical care, according to the testimony of lawyers and recently-released detainees. 

Israeli security forces were added to a UN blacklist of parties responsible for warzone sexual violence in May following a UN report on sexual violence against Palestinians during arrest, interrogation and detention. 

The Israeli military has a long history of withholding Palestinian corpses, and in 2018, the state passed a law to ensure the Israeli police can keep the bodies of Palestinian citizens in Israel and occupied Jerusalem. 

Hundreds of Palestinian bodies have been dumped in Israel’s ‘Cemeteries of Numbers’ –  mass graves in closed military zones marked with numbers rather than names. Some of the bodies have been there since the 1967 war.