The national campaign to recover the bodies of the martyrs detained by the Israeli occupation, the institutions of prisoners and the various activities of the Nablus governorate, and the families of dozens of martyrs, called on international bodies and human rights organizations to put pressure on the occupation government to close this file and release the bodies of the martyrs.

This came during a national event organized by the campaign, along with the rest of the institutions, in Martyrs' Square in the center of Nablus, today, Sunday, to commemorate the National Day for the Repatriation of the Martyrs' Bodies, which falls on August 27 of each year.

The event included the laying of dozens of symbolic coffins in Martyrs' Square. Each coffin was wrapped in the Palestinian flag and the name of a martyr from the Nablus governorate was written on each coffin, whose bodies are still being held by the occupation, and their number is (75 male and female martyrs).

Palestinian statistics indicate that the occupation authorities are still holding the bodies of 398 Palestinian martyrs, including the bodies of 11 prisoners, 14 children, and 5 women, including 142 bodies in refrigerators, and 256 in the number graves, while the number of missing persons is 75 since The beginning of the occupation.

The participants in the event raised banners affirming that the detention of the bodies of the martyrs in the morgues and numbers graves is an international, human and moral crime committed against their families and a clear violation of the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The head of the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Prisoners' Affairs, Qaddoura Musa, said in his speech during the event that "the criminal occupation state is a coalition of a group of racist gangs, and it is shameful for a country recognized by the United Nations to continue to detain the bodies of Palestinian martyrs."

In his speech on behalf of the national campaign, the director of the Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid, Issam Al-Arouri, affirmed the determination of our people to continue the struggle for the liberation of the bodies of our highest possessions (the martyrs).

He added: "The occupation has closed the door to negotiation regarding the bodies of the martyrs and turned this file, in a compound crime, into a material for bargaining and trading," stressing that there is no law in the world that allows trading in the issue of the bodies of the martyrs except in the occupying country.

For his part, Muzaffar Thouqan said in a speech on behalf of the National Committee for Supporting Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners in Nablus, "The right to retrieve the bodies of the martyrs is a legitimate right of our Palestinian people," stressing the importance of struggle by all means to recover their bodies.

He added, "This file is a national struggle issue that must remain alive in the conscience of our people."

In turn, the mother of the martyr, Saed Al-Koni, told Al-Quds.com that her son was martyred on 9/25/2023, when the occupation forces shot him while he was riding a motorcycle in Jabal Al-Tur (the southern mountain in the city of Nablus).

She added: "The body of her son was burnt by the bombs that the occupation fired at him, and that they found his amputated hand at the place of his martyrdom, and that the family buried the hand in one of the city's cemeteries, while the rest of the body is still with the occupation and they do not know anything about it."

And called on President Mahmoud Abbas and human rights organizations to transfer the file of the martyrs whose bodies are withheld by the occupation to the International Criminal Court.

Maha Rawajbeh, the sister of the martyr Bilal Rawajbeh, who was martyred about 3 years ago at the Hawara military checkpoint, said, "The occupation claimed that Bilal was martyred, but we are not sure of that because we have not seen his body or received it yet."

"We want real bodies for our martyred children instead of these symbolic coffins."