GENEVA: Hamas’s staged handover of the remains of four Gaza hostages to Israel on Thursday was “abhorrent and cruel,” the UN said, with the Red Cross again pleading for transfers to take place privately.
“The parading of bodies in the manner seen this morning is abhorrent and cruel, and flies in the face of international law,” said UN human rights chief Volker Turk.
“We urge that all returns are conducted in privacy, and with respect and care,” he added.
It was the first handover of dead hostages under a fragile ceasefire that so far had only seen living captives exchanged for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.
The ceremony to return the bodies of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons Kfir and Ariel, alongside a fourth hostage, Oded Lifshitz, took place at a former cemetery in the southern Gazan city of Khan Yunis.
The Bibas boys had become symbols of Israel’s ordeal during the unprecedented October 7 Hamas attack in 2023.
“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,” Turk said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, which has been responsible for transferring hostages and detainees between the Palestinian and Israeli sides since the war began in 2023, called for the transfer of remains to be carried out in private.
“Today the ICRC brought back the remains of those who should have been reunited with their loved ones in life, not in death,” it said in a brief statement.
“Our role today was to fulfil a vital humanitarian duty to allow families to mourn with dignity. They deserve to grieve and honor those they lost with a proper burial.
The ICRC said it remained committed to the role entrusted to the Geneva-based organization under the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
Ahead of the handover, Hamas and members of other armed Palestinian groups displayed four black coffins on a stage in front of a banner depicting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a bloodstained vampire.
After the handover, Israeli government spokesman David Mencer criticized the ICRC for having “not once visited our hostages while they were alive,” and having “made no effort whatsoever” to bring them medicines.
The ICRC has repeatedly said since the beginning of the conflict that it was making every effort to reach the hostages, but in vain.