Mutilated Palestinians linked to 'torture' jail

At least 135 mutilated bodies of Palestinians returned by Israel to Gaza had been held in a notorious detention centre already facing allegations of torture and unlawful deaths in custody, officials from Gaza’s health ministry have told the Guardian.

- Lorenzo Tondo Jerusalem Seham Tantesh Gaza

The director general of the health ministry, Dr Munir al-Bursh, and a spokesperson for Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, where the bodies are being examined, said a document found inside each body bag indicated the bodies all came from Sde Teiman, a military base in the Negev desert where, according to photos and testimonies published by the Guardian last year, Palestinian detainees were held in cages, blindfolded and handcuffed, shackled to hospital beds and forced to wear nappies.

“The document tags inside the body bags are written in Hebrew and clearly indicate that the remains were held at Sde Teiman,” Bursh said.

“The tags also showed that DNA tests had been carried out on some of them there.”

Last year the Israeli army launched a criminal investigation, which is continuing, into the deaths of 36 prisoners detained at Sde Teiman.

As part of the US-brokered truce in Gaza, Hamas has handed over the bodies of some of the hostages who died during the course of the war, and Israel has so far transferred the bodies of 150 Palestinians killed since the 7 October 2023 attack.

Some of the photographs of Palestinian bodies seen by the Guardian - which cannot be published due to their graphic nature - show several of the victims blindfolded, their hands tied behind their backs. One image shows a rope fastened around a man's neck.

Doctors in Khan Younis said official examinations and field observations "clearly indicate Israel carried out acts of murder, summary executions and systematic torture against many of the Palestinians". Health officials said the documented findings included "clear signs of direct gunfire at point-blank range and bodies crushed beneath Israeli tank tracks".

Eyad Barhoum, the administrative director of Nasser medical complex, said the bodies carried "no names but just codes", and that part of the identification process had started.