JERUSALEM, Israeli forces today quelled a march demanding the release of Palestinians’ bodies withheld from burial at Qalandiya checkpoint, north of Jerusalem, injuring 11 Palestinians, according to medical sources.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that their medics provided treatment to a person attending the march who was injured by an explosive round shot by Israeli soldiers in the foot as well as to eight others who suffocated from excessive tear gas inhalation.
PRCS added that their medics also treated two others for burns due to a tear gas canisters that directly struck them.
The 11 participants sustained injuries in the course of confrontations with Israeli soldiers who forcefully dispersed the rally, that took off al-Amari refugee camp and heading south towards the nearby permanently-staffed checkpoint.
The rally participants demanded that Israel return the bodies of Palestinian prisoners who die in imprisonment and those who allegedly committed attacks, most notably veteran prisoner Nasser Abu Hmaid, who died recently in custody.
Abu Hmaid, 50, died on the morning of Tuesday, December 20, at the Assaf Harofeh Israeli hospital near Tel Aviv despite longstanding calls to release him due to the Israeli policy of deliberate medical negligence and slow killing following his late diagnosis with cancer more than a year ago.
According to the National Campaign to Retrieve the Bodies of those Slain by Israeli forces and Unravel the Fate of Those Missing, the Israeli occupation authorities have been withholding the bodies of 256 persons who are buried in the so-called ‘Cemeteries of Numbers’ in addition to the bodies of 117 others who are withheld in morgues and refrigerators since the authorities resumed the policy regarding the decision to withhold the bodies of the deceased in October 2015.
Among those whose bodies are still withheld, there are five women and 11 prisoners, including Abu Hmaid.
The Campaign has documented the cases of 68 persons who went missing since the onset of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in June 1967.
Source: Palestine News & Info Agency