Israel returns Palestinian remains
In a goodwill move, it hands over coffins of 91 who died in suicide attacks or clashes.
RAMALLAH, West Bank — Israel on Thursday returned the remains of 91Palestinians it had been holding for many years in graves marked only by numbers.
The remains, released as a goodwill gesture aimed at reviving the stalled peace process, are of Palestinians who died in suicide attacks or in battle with Israeli forces.
Ninety-one coffins were handed over to the Palestinian Authority early Thursday for reburial; 79 were brought to Ramallah and the remainder to the Gaza Strip.
In Ramallah, families waited at the presidential headquarters, where a military funeral was held. Guards fired 21bullets in the air as a tribute to the dead, whom Palestinians refer to as martyrs.
Older people fainted near coffins that had the names of their children on them.
“I feel like I had just lost my son,” said Basima Hanani, 43, mother of Sayd Hanani, who blew himself up in Tel Aviv in December 2003, on his 18th birthday. “Even though eight years have passed, it feels today the same as the time when I was told my son had died.”
She said she would bury her son’s remains in their village, Beit Forik, in the northern West Bank. “At least now he will be close to us and we can visit him whenever we want,” she said.
Most of the remains were those of young Palestinians killed in suicide attacks in Israel in the last 10 years or in battles with Israeli soldiers who had tried to arrest them. Others were of Palestinian fighters killed in cross-border attacks since the mid-1970s, most prominently bodies of seven who infiltrated from the sea and were killed when Israeli special forces attempted to rescue hostages held in a Tel Aviv hotel in 1975.
Palestinian groups that had sought to legally force Israel to release the remains say they expect more to be released in the next few weeks.
They say the remains of an additional 200 Palestinians are still held in special cemeteries in Israel.