Shin Bet Chief Urges Israel to Hold 1,700 Palestinian Bodies as Bargaining Chips - Israel Security
Israel is holding the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians – around 1,700, according to two sources – for bargaining purposes, even though there are currently no Israelis being held hostage by Palestinian organizations. Shin Bet security service chief David Zini argues that Israel must keep these remains as bargaining chips in the event of future hostage-taking incidents, a position the Israel Defense Forces also supports.
The vast majority of the remains are of Palestinians who participated in the October 7 massacre, but some are of noninvolved Palestinians and 13 are of Israeli citizens.
Jurists say that in the absence of a resolution passed by Israel's cabinet on the issue, the state has no authority to hold the bodies of Palestinian noncombatants. Previous resolutions linked the holding of bodies to hostage negotiations, and no resolution has been discussed since the return of the body of hostage Ran Gvili from the Gaza Strip in January.
The issue has sparked tension between senior defense officials and government lawyers, including between Zini and the Shin Bet's legal advisor, whose name is barred from publication. In petitions submitted to the Supreme Court, the Shin Bet counsel argued the state cannot hold bodies in cases where it was determined that the persons were not involved in combat against Israel.
In February, Haaretz reported that Israel was holding the identified remains of 766 Palestinians and 10 foreign nationals, but sources say the real number is much higher. It is unclear how many have been identified and how many lived in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
The state recently admitted in a number of legal proceedings to also holding the bodies of Palestinians who died in Israeli detention; the military police are investigating these cases. In its response to the Supreme Court regarding the case of a photographer from Gaza who died at a makeshift IDF detention facility the day after his arrest, the state said the National Security Council has begun reviewing the matter ahead of an anticipated decision on the larger issue of holding the bodies. The review has not been completed.
In April, the State Prosecutor's Office began soliciting opinions on the issue from defense and security organizations, in preparation for a decision by the cabinet. As of July, this process, too, had not been completed. The IDF told the court that "special efforts" were underway to allow the release of some of the bodies, including those whose death circumstances were being investigated by the military police.
According to data published in Haaretz, dozens of such investigations have been opened, but no charges have been filed.
Missing bodies
The bodies are held in freezers in military facilities, but several defense officials say some remains have not been identified and the location of others is unknown. This is the case of Raj'a Samur, a 46-year-old resident of Gaza who before October 7, 2023, had an Israeli work permit. When the war erupted, he and some 4,000 other Gazans were placed in military detention facilities. He was first taken to Ofer Prison and then to a facility at the IDF base in Anata.
After Samur, a diabetic, died at Anata, the military police opened an investigation. His family petitioned the Supreme Court, demanding that his body be released to them. A body identified by the military rabbinate as Samur's was brought to Tel Aviv's National Institute of Forensic Medicine, but it was found to have bullet wounds; Samur had not been shot. The IDF and the State Prosecutor's Office had to admit that they didn't know where Samur's body was.
In an rare step, and in coordination with the IDF and the International Red Cross, a DNA sample was taken from Samur's brother, who lives in Gaza, and later from Samur's children as well, but the military rabbinate has not yet found his body. The state admitted to the court that "the manner in which the deceased's body was handled by the respondents raises a series of issues," saying "the military plans to investigate the failures and draw lessons" from it.
Meanwhile, some remains have been returned. Alaa Subeih, 28, from the Jordan Valley village of Tayasir, was shot dead in April by a soldier who, according to the IDF, was on leave and living in a nearby settlement outpost. His body was seized by the IDF.
In a response to Gideon Levy's article on the incident, the IDF Spokesperson's Unit claimed that Subeih was "a terrorist who participated in a disturbance between Palestinians and Israeli civilians" and that an "initial investigation revealed that the terrorist was shot while striking an Israeli in the head with a rock." However, Subeih's family was recently told that his body would be released.
The IDF refused to provide a comment for this article, as did the Shin Bet.