I Cannot Unsee the Photos of the Tortured Palestinian Hostages Returned by Israel
Where is the outrage, the coverage even, of the mutilated Palestinian bodies, with crushed legs and gunshot wounds to the head, that the Israelis finally released as part of this ‘ceasefire’ deal?
By Diana Buttu, Reposted from Zeteo, November 11, 2025
For nearly three weeks, we have heard by-the-minute news about the retrieval of Israeli bodies in Gaza. International rescue teams have been sent into Gaza, not to help retrieve the more than 10,000 bodies (a conservative figure) of Palestinians – including babies, children, the elderly – but to retrieve the remains of last Israelis, whom, it is known, including by Israelis, are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to retrieve because they are trapped beneath rubble due to two years of non-stop Israeli bombardment.
Meanwhile, the population of Gaza remains starved, collectively punished, until the last of the Israeli bodies is retrieved and confirmed. But while we see New York Times “breaking news” alerts on Israeli bodies, little attention has been paid to obvious signs of torture that Palestinians held by Israel endured before being returned to Gaza for burial, or to the sheer number of Palestinian bodies held by Israel.
Under the so-called “ceasefire agreement,” for every dead Israeli handed over to Israel, Israel would, in turn, return the remains of 15 Palestinians. To date, Israel has returned some 300 Palestinians, but without providing the names of the deceased. Due to Israel’s bombing of the forensic labs, all of the identification is being done by hand, a laborious job. Israel had, of course, failed to place the bodies in refrigerators, so the bodies arrived decomposed. And also mutilated.
As Palestinian bodies are brought to Gaza, their family members wait to find out whether their loved ones are among the dead, trapped under the rubble, or still held hostage in Israel.
I obtained pictures of some of the Palestinian bodies that have been returned – pictures that I wish I had not seen and now cannot unsee.
It was clear that Israel had tortured, abused, and executed many of the Palestinians they abducted from Gaza. In one picture, a man’s legs were crushed, likely by an Israeli tank, while his neck had signs that he had been hanged. This is in line with what Israeli soldiers have been openly stating they have done for over a year. In another picture, a man was blindfolded with his hands shackled behind his back. Some had gunshot wounds to the head. Another had a rope tied around his neck. And another had both arms amputated, with signs of torture on his legs.
His family identified him through the clothes he was wearing and a scar on his head. As for the others, many are still unidentified. Perhaps it is because their entire families have been killed, and perhaps because their bodies are so decomposed.
But there are no “breaking news alerts” for these nameless, faceless Palestinians. While it is clear from the markings on the body bags that many came from the notorious Sde Teiman prison camp – the one that Israelis rioted for the right to rape at – and where the Israeli army’s lawyer is under fire, not for the fact that Palestinians were being raped at this prison camp, but for releasing a video of soldiers raping Palestinians.
But wait, before you think that she is on the right side of history, she did so only to try to stop the right-wing attacks on the military investigators and prosecutors after a doctor reported the abuse to military police, leading to an investigation into several soldiers for allegedly raping a Palestinian hostage.
The Palestinian man, who was held in Sde Teiman, was taken to the hospital with a ruptured rectum, damage to one of his lungs, broken ribs, and other signs of physical abuse. He has since undergone a number of surgeries. Incidentally, he was one of the 1,700 Palestinian hostages released three weeks ago, released without charge or trial, while his rapists are still running free.
A month into the “ceasefire,” we still do not know the precise number of Palestinians (dead and alive) that Israel continues to hold. Last week, the Israel Prison Service revealed that it now holds 9,204 Palestinians in detention.
Of particular concern is that half are still being held without charge or trial: There are 3,368 administrative detainees (code for hostage), including children, and 1,205 people from Gaza held as “unlawful combatants” (which is also code for hostage). But these figures do not include Palestinians from Gaza held in military detention facilities (Sde Teiman and the Ofer camp).
Back in July 2024, it was revealed that Israel was holding an estimated 1,500 dead Palestinians from Gaza, but as of this week, it has refused to say how many it continues to hold. This 1,500 figure is in addition to the more than 720 Palestinian bodies (including 60 children) that Israel has held since before October 2023, including in what’s been called the “cemeteries of numbers.” Based on the testimony of released hostages, the number is likely higher.
One may wonder why Israel continues to hold onto them. The aim is clear: to show Palestinians that Israel controls us not only in life, but in death; controlling our mourning and our grief.
In March 2025, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, “Only sick and twisted people keep bodies, and you are sick and twisted!” He is right: Israel is sick and twisted.
Diana Buttu is a Haifa-based lawyer and analyst who was a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team in the early 2000s and is a frequent commentator and writer on Palestinian and Israeli issues.