Palestinians marked the National Day for the Recovery of the Bodies of Palestinian and Arab Martyrs on Thursday as the number of Palestinian remains held by Israel reached unprecedented levels, underscoring a decadeslong struggle by families seeking the return of their loved ones.
The annual observance, held Aug. 27, highlights the plight of families whose relatives’ bodies are being kept in Israeli military morgues or buried in closed military cemeteries known as “graves of numbers.”
The issue has taken on new urgency since Israel launched its war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
Hundreds of unidentified bodies have been returned to Gaza, while thousands of Palestinians remain missing, leaving families uncertain about the fate of their relatives.
The Palestinian Cabinet designated Aug. 27 as a national occasion in 2008 to mobilize legal and popular efforts to establish the fate of missing Palestinians, recover their bodies and ensure they are returned to their families for burial.
