UN rights chief: parading of bodies in Gaza abhorrent

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations rights chief said on Thursday the parading of the bodies of hostages in Gaza is abhorrent and flies in the face of international law.

Hamas handed over the bodies of four hostages to the Red Cross on Thursday. The coffins had been placed on a stage, with armed Hamas militants in black and camouflage uniforms surrounding the area.

The bodies of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his 4-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas in its October 7, 2023 attack, were transported to Israel.

The bodies of the children’s mother Shiri Bibas and a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, were also handed over, under the agreement for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Palestinian enclave that was reached last month.

“Under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families”, U.N. rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.

During the handover one militant stood beside a poster of a man standing over coffins wrapped in Israeli flags. It read “The Return of the War = The Return of your Prisoners in Coffins”

On Wednesday the Red Cross called for privacy and dignity for the deceased.

“We must be clear: any degrading treatment during release operations is unacceptable,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement.

The Hamas-directed hostage releases since the January 19 ceasefire have been characterised by large public ceremonies amid the ruins of Gaza and have come under growing criticism, including from the United Nations.

(This story has been corrected to say ‘Ariel,’ instead of ‘Airel,’ in paragraph 3)

(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Matthias Williams and Frances Kerry)