UN Commissioner Expresses Concern Over Exhumation of Human Remains in Gaza
Geneva, September 15 (KUNA) -- UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed deep concern today on Tuesday over the large-scale exhumation of human remains in the Gaza Strip, most of them belonging to children and women killed during the war, calling for the preservation of evidence related to violations and allowing international investigators to enter all parts of the Strip to assist in collecting and documenting evidence.
In a statement issued by his office in Geneva, Türk said that the exhumation of remains, approximately three years after the destruction of homes as a result of the Israeli occupation’s aggression, including from sites destroyed during attacks and amid ongoing legal proceedings regarding the conduct of hostilities, “raises serious concerns about the extent of compliance with international law and the possibility of committing serious violations, including war crimes.”
He expressed concern that “the remains exhumed so far may be only a drop in the ocean,” given that large areas of Gaza have been leveled by bombing or demolition and clearing operations using heavy machinery and explosives. He noted that Israeli occupation forces continue to level numerous areas in Gaza using bulldozers “without respect for the dead buried under the rubble.”
Türk called for all possible efforts to document and identify the victims’ identities, preserve forensic information and biological samples, record their burial sites, and inform their families. He said that “the large-scale discovery of human remains under the rubble in the city of Gaza has brought to the fore concerns about war crimes and other atrocious crimes.”
According to the statement, the Palestinian Civil Defense has recovered more than 630 bodies and other human remains from under destroyed buildings across the Gaza Strip between November 2025 and September 2026, while the total number of missing persons buried under the rubble is estimated at more than 8,000.
He added that the Palestinian Civil Defense recovered 233 bodies out of 407 corpses believed to be under the rubble of 20 destroyed buildings, mostly in the city of Gaza, between June 27 and August 27 last year, noting that among the recovered bodies were 74 children and 106 women.
He mentioned that Civil Defense teams recovered 96 bodies and other human remains from a single site in the (Zaytun) area, southeast of Gaza City, during the current month, including 58 children and 23 women, pointing out that the exhumation operations were carried out by hand.
The statement noted that the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documented in a previous report the use by Israeli occupation forces of heavy bombs weighing up to 2,000 pounds during the period from October 9 to December 2, 2023, in attacks targeting residential buildings, a school, refugee camps, and a market, resulting in the deaths of more than 200 people. It added that the report concluded that those strikes may have violated the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.
Türk called on the Israeli occupation authorities to fulfill their clear obligations under international law and to take all necessary measures to search for missing persons and determine their fate, as well as to search for the dead, collect their bodies, evacuate them, and exhume remains in a manner that preserves the dignity of the victims, identifies them, and preserves all potential evidence in areas where its forces are deployed.
He stressed the need for effective investigation into these attacks and accountability for those responsible, calling on all countries to exert pressure to enhance cooperation and coordination to ensure the recovery of bodies across the Gaza Strip in a manner that preserves the dignity and humanity of the victims. (End) A.M.K. / M.N.F.
