Ismail al-Thawabteh, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, has met a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), according to a statement issued on Telegram, Al Jazeera reports.
The statement said the official “raised a set of fundamental questions … including the mechanism and method of receiving the bodies of Israeli captives … in humane and appropriate ways, while the bodies of Palestinian martyrs … are handed over in inhumane and brutal ways by the occupation army”.
Last September, the ICRC denied any role in the transfer of the remains of dead Palestinians from Israel to Gaza. The issue was raised by al-Thawabteh in the meeting, the statement said.
He highlighted that some of the Palestinian bodies have been “dissolved and handed over in humiliating ways in plastic bags that contradict international standards”.
Gaza official also “asked about the position of the International Committee regarding the occupation’s evasion of its responsibilities in revealing the fate of Palestinian detainees who were subjected to the crime of enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity”.
The meeting comes after the ICRC criticised the public handover ceremony of four Israeli captives’ bodies last week, saying it should have done “privately”.
