ISRAELI OCCUPIED AND STARVED GAZA, 22 Oct. - (ANA) - At least 135 bodies were returned to the Gaza Strip by Israel bearing signs of torture and mutilation, The Guardian reported on Monday, while an elderly Palestinian detained from the enclave was also announced dead after being held in an Israeli jail for a year.

 

The latest developments and previous release by Israel of living and dead Palestinian captives and prisoners have raised the alarm around the torture and abuse of detainees, including those held at the notorious Sde Teiman site, located in the Negev desert.

 

Rights groups have previously shed light on instances of rape and torture in the detention camp. Images from Sde Teiman have shown handcuffed and shackled Palestinians in cages, with some blindfolded captives forced by Israeli forces to wear nappies.

 

Gaza’s ministry of health stated that the 135 bodies were returned with a document in each body bag as part of the ceasefire deal brokered by US President Donald Trump, which saw Hamas free captives in return for Israel releasing Palestinian detainees and the bodies of those killed since the start of the war.

 

"The document tags inside the body bags are written in Hebrew and clearly indicate that the remains were held at Sde Teiman," the director of the health ministry, Dr Munir al-Bursh told The Guardian.

 

The bodies returned to Gaza showed visible signs of torture, including hands tied behind the back of the victim, a rope around their neck, as well as marks and bruises.

 

The director of the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza, Eyad Barhoum, said that the identification process has started as the bodies were not returned with names, just codes.

 

Naji Abbas, the director of the prisoners and detainees department at Physicians for Human Rights Israel told The Guardian that signs of torture on the bodies were "horrifying but sadly not surprising".

 

"These findings corroborate what Physicians for Human Rights Israel has exposed over the past two years about conditions inside Israeli detention facilities - particularly at the Sde Teiman camp - where Palestinians have been subjected to systematic torture and killings by soldiers and prison guards," he added.

 

"The unprecedented number of Palestinians who have died in Israeli custody, together with verified evidence documented by PHR-Israel of deaths resulting from torture and medical neglect - and now the findings on the returned bodies - leave no doubt: an independent international investigation is urgently needed to hold those responsible in Israel accountable," he continued.

 

After the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, Sde Teiman, previously used as a storage facility for bodies taken from Gaza, has also been turned into a prison camp.

 

In one example, the body of Palestinian detainee Mahmoud Ismail Shabat, 34, from north Gaza, showed that his legs were crushed by tank tracks as well as marks of hanging around his neck.

 

Palestinian doctors have repeatedly asserted that Palestinians were forcibly taken from Gaza, where they were tortured and killed, with their bodies held at Sde Teiman.

 

The facility holds the bodies of around 1,500 Palestinians, whistleblowers and witnesses revealed, according to The Guardian.

 

Some bodies showed evidence of gunshot wounds, while detainees released from the site explained how they were forced to strip naked before they were held in the cold. Others witnessed seeing detainees having their limbs amputated, as well as suffering physical and sexual abuse.

 

 

 

 

The latest developments come as an elderly detainee, identified as Jamel al-Ajrami, was pronounced dead on Monday in an Israeli jail, according to local Arabic media.

 

Al-Ajrami was held in the Negev Prison, before being transferred to a hospital where he died.

 

The 69-year-old father of six from Gaza spent one year in detention after being seized from the Gaza Strip. Rights groups state that he, like many others, died due to neglect and abuse at the hands of Israeli prison authorities and were held in poor conditions.

 

Since the start of the war on Gaza, Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with an estimated 9,100 detainees still in custody despite the recent release of nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners as part of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

 

Israel's abuse of Palestinian detainees increased dramatically after the war began, with far-right ministers boasting of the poor conditions they are held in, and the limited amounts of food they received.

 

Israel’s war on Gaza killed over 68,000 Palestinians and plunged the Gaza Strip into famine and a deep humanitarian catastrophe.   - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/22 October 2025 - - -