Israel court says Palestinian body can be held for hostage deal

People in Gaza City on May 25, 2023, rallied to demand Israel release terminally ill Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa, who has since passed away. He was arrested in 1986 and sentenced for the killing of an Israeli soldier. Photo / AFP

• Israel’s Supreme Court ruled authorities can hold the body of Palestinian prisoner Walid Daqqa for hostage negotiations.
• Daqqa died in April after 38 years in custody for kidnapping and murdering an Israeli soldier.
• The court’s decision, criticised by advocacy group Adalah, allows withholding bodies as bargaining chips in negotiations.

Israel’s Supreme Court on Monday ruled authorities have the right to hold the body of a Palestinian prisoner to aid hostage negotiations, rejecting an appeal for return of the corpse.

Walid Daqqa – a Palestinian of Israeli nationality – died from cancer while still in custody in April.

He had spent 38 years in detention for the kidnapping and murder of an Israeli soldier in 1984.

After his death, his remains were held by Israeli authorities because of negotiations then under way for an exchange between Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons, and hostages as well as the bodies of dead captives held by Hamas militants in Gaza.

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“The military command has the authority to order the holding of the bodies of terrorists for the purposes of negotiations, including the bodies of terrorists who are citizens of Israel,” the court said in a statement.

Hamas’ unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1205 people on the Israel side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures that include hostages killed in captivity.

Of the 251 hostages seized by militants, 97 are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.

There are currently more than 9600 Palestinian prisoners in Israel, according to civil society organisations monitoring prisons.

The court’s decision drew criticism from Adalah, an advocacy group for Arab minority rights in Israel, which had filed the appeal.

“The Israeli Supreme Court has sanctioned the government’s brutal policy of withholding the bodies of Palestinians, including citizens of Israel, purely based on security assessments of their potential value to be exploited as bargaining chips in negotiations for Jewish Israeli hostages,” the group said in a statement.

Israel has been holding the bodies of dozens of Palestinians for years, including the remains of members of armed groups killed during clashes that caused Israeli casualties.