Mutilation of Palestinian dead bodies by Israeli soldiers requires investigation and accountability
A still from the video of soldiers throwing down dead bodies
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports on 22 September 2024:
In a horrifying incident that adds to the ongoing string of atrocities and serious crimes in the occupied Palestinian territory, Israeli soldiers threw the bodies of dead Palestinians from the roof of a house in Qabatiya, north of the occupied West Bank, on Thursday. This incident calls for an immediate and thorough international investigation.
A shocking video showed Israeli soldiers raiding the town of Qabatiya, close to Jenin, where they besieged three Palestinians in a two-story building and attacked it with incendiary Energa shells, before killing the Palestinians and abusing their bodies by tossing them from the top of the structure to the ground.
Three Israeli soldiers are seen in the videos scaling the building’s roof, pushing the bodies, and then hurling each one from the upper story. One of the videos shows a soldier kicking a dead body until it tumbles off the edge.
Accountability procedures must be implemented for the crime of Israeli soldiers abusing dead Palestinian bodies, particularly in light of the emphasis placed by international law on the need to treat bodies with respect, prevent damage, and return them to their families. This is particularly critical considering how often, during the ongoing genocide against Palestinian civilians since 7 October, the Israeli army has carried out such serious actions in the Gaza Strip as attacking cemeteries, bulldozing them, digging up and defacing graves, and removing numerous bodies from them.
Under international criminal and humanitarian law, the horrifying scenes witnessed in Qabatiya are more than just potential war crimes. The Geneva Conventions are very explicit about treating the dead with human dignity and strictly forbidding mutilation or degradation of corpses, even if the dead were combatants. Likewise, the Rome Statute designates as war crimes any act that violates another person’s dignity, such as the dehumanizing and inhumane treatment of the deceased.