A brief history of Israel’s theft and trafficking of Palestinian organs
People watch as some of the 84 bodies of Palestinians handed over by Israeli forces are buried in a mass grave, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, on 5 August 2024
Healthcare Workers for Palestine report in Mondoweiss on 22 February 2025 :
On August 5, 2024, three hundred and three days into their genocidal onslaught on the people of Gaza, the Israeli Occupation returned to Khan Younis the bodies of 89 Palestinians in a shipping container. The living, desperate to identify their loved ones, were met instead with the embodiment of mass death. Decomposed beyond recognition, the corpses retained none of their histories. Were these the bodies of tortured detainees? Were they corpses stolen from bulldozed graves in Gaza? The Occupation refused to say. Without the ability to do DNA testing, Palestinian officials were unable to identify the bodies and had no choice but to bury them, bag by bag, in a single large grave near Nasser Hospital.
Euro Med Monitor has also documented several such cases. The Israeli Military (IOF) were seen taking dozens of bodies from graves and the streets surrounding Al-Shifa Medical Complex and the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. There were numerous accounts of this all over Gaza as well. In the aftermath of the ceasefire as people returned to areas the IOF withdrew from they found further evidence of bodies in mass graves. According to Euro Med “Concerns about organ theft from the corpses were brought up by Euro-Med Monitor, which cited reports from medical professionals in Gaza who quickly examined a few bodies after their release. These medical professionals found evidence of organ theft, including missing cochleas and corneas as well as other vital organs like livers, kidneys, and hearts.”
Zionist brutality reaches beyond death. For years, the Occupation’s war machine has laid claim to the bodies of Palestinian martyrs, not only holding them hostage, withholding their remains from their families, but also using them to perpetuate schemes of organ theft and trafficking. Israeli doctors, in direct violation of international law, have stolen Palestinian organs and Palestinian skin.