The corpses of three Palestinian individuals who were recently released from Israeli imprisonment were found handcuffed near the border of Gaza and Israel. According to a relative of one of the victims and a bystander, these men were assaulted by Israeli forces immediately post their release.
On Sunday, Abdel Hadi Ghabayen, the uncle of one of the detainees named Kamel Ghabayen, set out at dawn to search for his nephew who had been apprehended by Israeli troops the previous day. “I discovered him and the other two victims abandoned on the soil. They were unclothed, with their wrists bound in plastic cuffs applied by the Israeli military,” Mr Ghabayen stated.
On Sunday, the corpses were recovered close to the Israeli border fence near the Karam Abu Salem (also referred to as Kerem Shalom) crossing point in southern Gaza. However, Reuters was unable to independently verify the circumstances surrounding the three men’s death or the reason for their detainment. In response to the request for remarks, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) stated that they had no knowledge of an event where the suspects were killed due to IDF activity.
Abdel Hadi Ghabayen revealed that one of the deceased was in a state of mutilation, missing a leg, which he attributed to an attack by Israeli forces conducted shortly after their release. When Mr Ghabayen attempted to collect the severed limb, purportedly he was fired upon by the Israelis and therefore had to abandon his efforts. Eventually, he transported the remains of all three victims to Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on his lorry.
The trio, namely Kamel Ghabayen, Mohammed Awad Ramadan Abu Hejazi, and Ramadan Awad Ramadan Aby Hejaz, were among a group of Palestinians who were detained and questioned on Saturday, as per another detainee, Mahmoud Abu Taha. He indicated that they were attacked shortly after being released. “As we arrived at Karkar Street (in Gaza), roughly ten minutes past, a bomb was launched towards the people accompanying me. By divine grace, I was in the lead and thus survived. The bomb struck six or seven fellow detainees. I am grateful to be alive,” he recounted.
Hostilities ignited on the 7th of October, spearheaded by militants under the command of Gaza’s ruling party, Hamas, who launched an assault on southern Israel. As per Israeli data, this onslaught resulted in approximately 1,200 deaths and the capture of around 250 individuals. Subsequently, the Israeli military response has led to the deaths of over 38,000 Palestinians, as asserted by health authorities based in Gaza, as reported by Reuters.
-Thomson Reuters 2024 Copyright