The Cruelty of Denial: Gaza’s Families Deserve the Dignity of Burial - 10.19.2025

Palestinians in Gaza are engaged in the grim task of identifying the bodies of loved ones recently returned by Israel. The process is harrowing, as many of the corpses are in advanced stages of decomposition, forcing families to rely on remnants of clothing, personal items, and DNA testing to make identifications.

The return of these bodies follows mounting global outrage over Israel’s refusal to release the remains of Palestinians killed during its ongoing campaign of extermination in Gaza. This campaign—waged through relentless aerial bombardments and a total blockade—has been enabled by weaponry and political support from the United States and the European Union.
Entire neighborhoods have been leveled. Civilians—men, women, and children—have been buried beneath rubble or starved under siege conditions. The systematic and indiscriminate nature of the attacks, combined with the withholding of food, water, and medical aid, has led many observers, including human rights experts, to draw parallels with the Nazi death camps: mass death delivered not just by bullets and bombs, but by starvation, disease, and the erasure of human dignity.

For families in Gaza, the return of these bodies offers a painful, incomplete form of closure. While some are able to locate and bury their relatives, many more continue to wait—powerless in the face of bureaucratic cruelty and ongoing violence.

This atrocity is not occurring in silence. Human rights organizations continue to demand an end to the genocide, full accountability for war crimes, and recognition of the inherent dignity of every Palestinian life extinguished by this campaign of annihilation.