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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israel Bombed Its Own People
and Uses Their Bodies as Political Chips against Gaza</h1>
October 19, 2025</div>
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<div><font size="1">The ICRC receives the bodies of four
Israeli captives. (Photo: via ICRC website)
</font>
<p><strong>By <a
href="https://www.palestinechronicle.com/writers/robert-inlakesh"
title="Display all articles for Robert Inlakesh"
moz-do-not-send="true">Robert Inlakesh</a></strong></p>
<blockquote>
<h3><span>After having relentlessly bombarded Gaza for
over two years, the Israelis insidiously use the
remains of their own dead in order to threaten
restarting the genocide.</span></h3>
</blockquote>
<p><span>Western corporations continue to display their
collective belief that Israeli life is more precious
than Palestinian life, ignoring all the hostages
Israel holds. Meanwhile, the bodies held in Gaza,
although treated as superior victims of Hamas, are
all of Israeli citizens who remained trapped under
the rubble of their own military\u2019s airstrikes and
are now used as political chips.</span></p>
<p><span>At least 19 bodies continue to remain in Gaza,
buried underneath mounds of rubble due to Israel\u2019s
two-year-long indiscriminate bombing of the besieged
coastal territory. Recently, the Associated Press
released an article naming all of them and
eulogizing them. </span></p>
<p><span>Many were soldiers or active combatants,
upholding an illegal occupation and siege, yet they
are still portrayed as if they were innocent
civilians. Under the laws of war, active combatants
of an occupation force are considered valid targets
and prisoners of war if they are seized during
battle, yet those Israelis who fit this description
are still incorrectly labeled \u201chostages\u201d; therefore,
it is a politically charged and biased term.</span></p>
<p><span>Take, for example, the Associated Press\u2019
description of Itay Chen, an Israeli soldier serving
along the Gaza separation barrier on October 7,
2023. He is described as a hostage \u201cwho was abducted
along with two other members of his tank battalion\u201d,
noting that \u201dChen loved basketball and studying
human biology\u201d and \u201cis survived by his parents, two
brothers, and a dog named Gucci.\u201d </span></p>
<p><span>This is the equivalent of speaking about a
Hamas fighter whose body was seized by Israeli
forces that day by claiming he is a hostage who was
abducted from his hang glider, loved playing table
tennis, and is survived by his dog Fufu. In order
for the Associated Press to be \u201cbalanced\u201d, this is
literally what kind of description of Hamas fighters
they would have to publish.</span></p>
<p><b>Israel Bombs Its Own People then Uses Their Bodies</b></p>
<p><span>Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has
warned that due to the delay in handing over the
remaining bodies in Gaza, \u201ctime is running out\u201d and
accuses Hamas of delaying the handover of their
remains purposefully.</span></p>
<p><span>In reality, Israel knows full well that
exhuming many of these bodies, even if Hamas has an
idea of precisely where they all may be, takes heavy
excavation equipment and the work of professionals
to retrieve them. Note that a minimum of 10,000
Palestinian bodies are also believed to be buried
underneath the rubble of Gaza, and the process of
finding them all could take years.</span></p>
<p><span>Again, there is no mention in the corporate
media of these Palestinians, including countless
women and children, and no push to see the return of
their remains. There are no articles talking about
who they were, naming them explicitly, and
discussing their hobbies. </span></p>
<p><span>Meanwhile, the some 120 bodies of Palestinians
from Gaza who were released in three batches back to
the besieged territory bore the signs of horrific
torture. According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor,
there is \u201cclear evidence of brutal torture\u201d. The
human rights group report noted the following:</span></p>
<p><span>\u201cMedical examinations, forensic reports, and
observations by the field team revealed conclusive
evidence that many victims were killed after being
detained. Their bodies bore clear marks of hanging,
rope imprints around their necks, injuries from
close-range gunfire, bound hands and feet with
plastic restraints, and blindfolds. Some bodies were
crushed under tank tracks, while others showed
severe signs of physical torture, fractures, burns,
and deep wounds.\u201d</span></p>
<p><span>Dr. Ismail Al-Thawabta, the Director General of
the Government Media Office in Gaza, also recently
revealed to Al-Jazeera that \u201cWe also have serious
suspicions that Israel has stolen organs from some
of these martyrs\u2014corneas, livers, and other internal
organs\u2014which were clearly missing when the bodies
were examined.\u201d</span></p>
<p><span>There are still over 11,000 Palestinian
hostages languishing in Israeli military occupation
prisons and torture detention facilities run by the
army.</span></p>
<p><span>On the question of the remaining Israeli bodies
in Gaza, Israel has long understood that extracting
their remains requires the use of heavy machinery
and equipment that is not currently available in
Gaza. International teams, such as one from Turkiye,
have offered to help in the efforts to recover the
remaining Israeli bodies, yet Israel decided to
continue keeping the Rafah Crossing closed and would
not immediately let the needed equipment and teams
enter.</span></p>
<p><span>The Israeli media has long acknowledged that
the issue of retrieving the remains of their
captives will be complicated due to the mass
destruction in the territory. Yet, the Israeli
political leadership and a fully complicit Western
media are now selling the idea that Hamas is the
problem in this regard.</span></p>
<p><span>As a result of the delay in returning the
Israeli bodies, the regime in Tel Aviv has
repeatedly threatened to cut down the amount of
humanitarian aid entering Gaza. Not only is this a
blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement, but
also a violation of international law. Aid reaching
a civilian population is prohibited from being used
as a political negotiating tool.</span></p>
<p><span>In fact, with aid being part of the Gaza deal
in itself, it renders the very agreement technically
illegal under international law, as humanitarian aid
is explicitly used as a negotiating chip. This now
creates a dangerous precedent for future conflicts,
where other governments may use the threat of
imposing famine on a civilian population in order to
negotiate favorable political outcomes.</span></p>
<p><span>Of the Israeli bodies buried under the rubble,
many were killed as a result of Israeli airstrikes,
yet there are no calls for accountability over the
fact that the Israeli air force murdered its own
people or that they have dropped so many explosives
over Gaza as to cause the crisis of the day.</span></p>
<p><span>Instead, after having relentlessly bombarded
Gaza for over two years, the Israelis insidiously
use the remains of their own dead in order to
threaten restarting the genocide. </span></p>
<p><em>(The Palestine Chronicle)</em></p>
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<p><br>
</p>
<p><span><em>\u2013 Robert Inlakesh is a journalist,
writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on
the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He
contributed this article to The Palestine
Chronicle. </em></span></p>
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