The Prisoners' Institutions and the National Campaign to Recover the dead Bodies reported today, Tuesday, that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to detain 552 bodies, including 256 in the numbered cemeteries, in addition to hundreds from the Gaza Strip.

This came in a joint statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoners Club, the Commission of Prisoners and Freed Prisoners’ Affairs, the Damir Foundation for Human Rights, and the National Campaign to Recover the Bodies of Martyrs on the occasion of the National Day for Recovering Bodies, which falls on August 27 of each year.

The institutions indicated that "the number of martyrs whose bodies are being held in the numbered cemeteries and refrigerators has reached 552, including 256 in the numbered cemeteries, including 296 since the return of the detention policy in 2015."

It pointed out that among the detained bodies were "9 women, 32 prisoners, 55 children under the age of 18, 5 dead from the 1948 territories, and 6 dead from among the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon."

The statement said: "Since the beginning of the war of extermination on October 7, the occupation has escalated the detention of bodies, as it is holding 149 bodies, and this number constitutes more than half of the dead detained since 2015, noting that this data does not include the victims detained from the Gaza Strip."

He added: "The number of dead from Gaza held by the occupation is estimated at hundreds, but there is no official statement from the occupation about the actual number of bodies of martyrs from Gaza to this day."

It is noteworthy that the "numbered graves" are simple graves surrounded by stones without headstones, and a metal plate is fixed above each grave bearing a number, not the name of the body's owner, and each number has a special file kept by the occupation authorities.