Israel returns bodies of Palestinians
HEBRON, Palestinian Territories: Israel handed Palestinian authorities the bodies of seven Palestinians killed carrying out attacks, or during clashes or arrests over a period spanning six months, the army said Friday.
The move was “in accordance with government directives,” a military spokeswoman told AFP, and came a week after the Israel government informed the High Court it would be willing to return seven out of 10 bodies of Palestinians from the West Bank that it had been holding.
The remaining three were not to be returned at this point because they were affiliated with the militant Hamas movement.
Four of the Palestinians whose bodies were returned Friday came from the Hebron area of the southern occupied West Bank, a focal point in the recent wave of attacks, with the other three hailing from the Tulkarem and Nablus areas to the north.
One body belonged to a man suspected of criminal activity who was shot dead by police in September, and another assaulted Israeli soldiers during a riot in October, the spokeswoman said.
The other five – one of them a woman – were Palestinians who had either attempted to or succeeded in carrying out stabbing or car-ramming attacks on Israeli security forces or civilians since June, according to the spokeswoman.
A wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks erupted last year, but the violence has greatly subsided in recent months. — AFP