The United Nations human rights chief has said the parading of the bodies of deseased hostages by Hamas in Gaza is abhorrent and flies in the face of international law.
As the bodies of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his 4-year-old brother Ariel had been placed on coffins on a stage, along with the bodies of the children’s mother Shiri Bibas and a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, armed Hamas terrorists in black and camouflage uniforms staged their latest hand-over ceremony.
Women and children were seen in the audience as Hamas handed the bodies of the four hostages to the Red Cross.
During the handover one Hamas member stood beside a poster which featured an image of the Bibas family and the wording:”The war criminal Netanyahu & His Nazi Army Killed Them With Missiles From Zionist Warplane.”
Another masked terrorist stood in front of a poster showing coffins wrapped in Israeli flags. It read “The Return of the War = The Return of your Prisoners in Coffins.”
In a statement the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said ” ceremony in Gaza is cruel, despicable, and completely contrary to international law.”
He said:”Under international law, any handover of the remains of the deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families.”
Volker Turk
On Wednesday the Red Cross had 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.
All 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.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also condemned Hamas’s “limitless terror” after the Palestinian militant group in Gaza paraded the coffins of four dead hostages it handed over to Israel.”Four coffins, presented on stage — images that are unbearable,” she wrote in a message on X.
“Until the very end, the families of the hostages are exposed to Hamas’s limitless terror. My thoughts are with them. Hopefully they are soon able to mourn their loved ones and bury them with dignity.”
