Justice David Mintz emphasized the court’s limited authority to intervene in security-related government decisions, noting intervention is reserved for extreme circumstances.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

Israel’s High Court of Justice unanimously ruled on Sunday that the state is not obligated to release for burial the bodies of slain terrorists who were Israeli citizens.

The decision upheld the state’s position that retaining these bodies may be necessary for potential negotiations to secure the return of Israeli hostages and deceased individuals held by Hamas in Gaza.

The ruling followed six petitions filed last year by relatives of the deceased. The petitioners argued the policy was unlawful, exceeded legal authority, and inflicted significant harm on the dignity of both the deceased and their families.

The state contended that negotiations for hostages and the dead are in a sensitive and dynamic phase. It maintained that retaining the bodies remains a critical option for advancing these talks.

Justice David Mintz, writing for the three-judge panel, emphasized the court’s limited authority to intervene in security-related government decisions, noting intervention is reserved for extreme circumstances.

He further cited a 1945 regulation granting the military commander authority to withhold the release of terrorist bodies, a power affirmed by a prior court ruling to apply to Israeli citizens.

Mintz concluded that the government’s decision is a temporary measure subject to ongoing cabinet review. Given the current security landscape and the evolving nature of negotiations, the court found no grounds for interference.

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Protesters painted their hands red, symbolizing blood, while others sat on the ground caressing bloodied ‘corpses.’

How would you describe these protesters in Norway? pic.twitter.com/cVszTiPeU9

— Cam Higby (@camhigby) September 7, 2024

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The only way to push a ceasefire through without significant Israeli public opposition is to exploit the hostages by promoting the idea that the corpses, too, are ‘hostages.’

By Moshe Phillips, JNS

The news that Hamas was planning to dig up corpses from an old British cemetery in the Gaza Strip to pressure the British government to turn against Israel shines a spotlight on a question that needs to be asked: How did dead people come to be regarded as “hostages”?

In normal discourse and popular culture, a hostage is typically a person taken prisoner and held bound in some basement—alive—while the kidnappers wait to see if their demands will be met.

A person who is kidnapped and murdered is not normally referred to as a “hostage.” He or she is referred to as dead—as a murder victim.

Yet in recent months, mainstream media agencies have been reporting that Hamas is holding 110 Israeli hostages, one-third of whom “are believed to be dead.” Technically, a dead body can be held hostage, but normally, live prisoners are called hostages, and dead ones are called corpses.

If Hamas had proceeded with its plan to dig up dead British soldiers from long ago, would the British media describe those corpses as “hostages”? I doubt it.

Would the British public demand that their government change its entire Middle East policy in order to get the bodies back? I doubt it.

Would anybody call for the release of convicted Muslim terrorists serving jail sentences in Britain in exchange for the corpses? I doubt it.

Yet that’s exactly how governments around the world and media agencies are treating the question of the dead Israelis in Gaza.

Why? Because it’s a way of increasing pressure on Israel to cease firing at Hamas.

Throughout the 10-month-long war in Gaza, those who want to stop Israel from defeating Hamas have been pushing the idea that Israel should release thousands of terrorists and stop pursuing Hamas in exchange for Israeli hostages.

But as the months have passed, the number of hostages has decreased. Some were released in an exchange last November. Some were rescued. And, according to Israeli officials and other sources, many others were murdered either on Oct. 7 or subsequently, and some of those bodies have been recovered.

The smaller the number of hostages, the less incentive there is for Israel to cease firing and free thousands of terrorists. The smaller the number of hostages, the greater the possibility that Israel might be able to rescue them. And the smaller the number of hostages, the fewer terrorists Hamas can demand in exchange for them.

So for all those in the media and the international community who want to see Hamas saved from destruction, the larger the number of hostages, the better.

It’s not that editors or diplomats want to see Israelis—or anybody else—held hostage. It’s that they either sympathize with the Palestinian Arab cause, or they are terrified that Hamas might murder them next.

It’s not a conspiracy; it’s that those who favor one side naturally have constructed a narrative that advances their cause. And so a narrative has gradually taken hold in the news media and the diplomatic world in which events are described in ways that are advantageous to stopping Israel and saving Hamas.

They want to see Hamas appeased, not destroyed. They want to prevent Israel from achieving victory because an Israeli victory would infuriate the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab world in general.

The plight of the hostages, therefore, has become a political weapon. And inflating the number of hostages—by adding dead bodies to the total—has become part of that pressure campaign.

Of course, Israel would like to secure the return of the bodies of the murder victims. The victims’ families deserve closure, and the dead deserve a proper burial. Still, not many Israelis would support releasing thousands of terrorists or letting Hamas remain in power to do so.

The only way to push the plan through without significant Israeli public opposition is to exploit the hostages by promoting the idea that the corpses, too, are “hostages.” And if there’s one thing Israel’s enemies are very good at, it’s exploitation.

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Nearly three months after the attacks, ZAKA’s work to identify the bodies is far from complete.

By Amelie Botbol, TPS

“We’d walk into a room full of blood and see no sign of shooting or bombing. There, Hamas terrorists didn’t use a gun to kill their victims, they used an axe to chop them into pieces,” said Simcha Greiniman, volunteer emergency responder with the ZAKA organization.

Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of 1,200 people in Israel, 800 ZAKA volunteers have worked around the clock to recover the remains of the dead.

“I am there every day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. to make sure that these families get the closure they need to properly mourn their loved ones,” the 47 year-old Greiniman told the Tazpit Press Service.

Founded in 1995, ZAKA deals with instances of unnatural death, and works in close cooperation with emergency services and security forces. Over 3,000 ZAKA volunteers are currently deployed cross the country, on call 24/7, to respond to terror attacks, accidents or natural disasters.

Greiniman has been volunteering for ZAKA for the past 32 years and oversees groups in charge of conducting Chesed Shel Emes, honoring the dead by bringing bodies to burial, which is considered one of the greatest commandments in Judaism.

“In the Bible, there is a special need to make sure bodies get a proper burial and that no part, not even blood samples or small bones, are left behind,” explained Greiniman.

As part of ZAKA International, Greiniman has volunteered both in Israel and overseas in scenarios ranging from natural disasters to accidents and terror attacks. In recent years, ZAKA International flew to Haiti, India, Turkey and Morocco.

During the Sept. 11 terror attacks in New York City, Greiniman sat at the airport for two weeks waiting to get approval from the United States to assist emergency teams on site.

“This time, it happened in our backyard. Hundreds of people who supported Palestinians by giving them a place to work, taking them to hospitals, were massacred in their homes and captured into Gaza” on Oct. 7, said Greiniman.

He recalled one instance in which he entered a house and on the living room table found a birthday cake.

“A cake is supposed to be something happy. But we didn’t come to eat cake, we came to take care of bodies,” said Greiniman.

“My eyes went looking for pictures of the family who lived in that house and who should have been celebrating,” he added.

Greiniman described a very strong smell of burnt flesh emanating from the house’s safe room. When he turned on his flashlight upon entering the pitch-dark room, he found charred remains.

“Everything was connected, glued together. At the top, there were three adult-sized skulls and at the bottom two small skulls attached,” Greiniman told TPS. “They were burnt to death while hugging each other—it was extremely hard to take them apart.”

Later, Greiniman deduced that these were the skulls of two children, their parents and grandmother, who all lived in the house.

“When we took out the bodies, we had to walk by that cake every single time,” he recalled.

He recalled another house which had been burnt to the ground on Oct. 7. In one of the rooms, the ceiling had collapsed and cement was covering the floor.

“In the cement, I saw a lump. Underneath, there was a dead child who was about five years old,” he said.

“In a separate room, I found the skull of another young child with the metal part of a hammer still attached to it. The wooden part of the hammer had burned [away]. Every house has a story,” he added.

Collecting human remains from a house into which Hamas terrorists lobbed grenades could take up to 18 hours, especially if more than one person had hidden in the same room, Greiniman explained. Once collected, the body parts are sent to a special morgue for DNA testing.

“Nothing prepares you for it,” he said. “I have dealt with blown-up buses, restaurants, hotels and butchered synagogues, but seeing hundreds of bodies at a rave laying in a field… you can’t ever train yourself to be ready for that,” he continued, in reference to the Supernova Music Festival, where some 360 revelers were slaughtered on Oct. 7.

Greiniman told TPS that he had been shocked to hear people deny Hamas’s crimes against humanity, a phenomenon he chalked up to antisemitism.

To raise awareness of the massacres, Greiniman spoke at United Nations headquarters in New York City on Dec. 5. In 2005, the United Nations recognized ZAKA an international humanitarian organization, and in 2016, the U.N. Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations granted ZAKA Search and Rescue advisory status as an official body.

“I was the one who took out the bodies; I could not let anyone deny these crimes, especially as a volunteer for ZAKA, which the U.N. officially recognizes,” said Greiniman.

“I came into houses and saw women naked from their stomach down leaning over their own beds, with their hands tied behind their backs and bleeding from different areas,” he said.

“It if had happened anywhere else in the world, humanity would be screaming for justice,” he added. “I invite whoever denies what we have dealt with to come and let me personally walk them around the scenes, show them what happened and where it happened,” he added.

While ZAKA generally refrains from photographing the deceased out of respect for their privacy, Greiniman was told by his commanders after two days in the field to take pictures as evidence of the horror.

Nearly three months after the attacks, ZAKA’s work to identify the bodies is far from complete.

“Bodies were burned so badly that no bone marrow or teeth were left to cross-reference for DNA purposes,” Greiniman explained.

After 9/11, the U.S. built a special device to recover DNA from the ashes of the World Trade Center buildings. While Israel is working on a similar machine, ZAKA is currently sending samples to America to identify some remains.

“You can’t give up. There are families who can’t carry on living without knowing what happened to their loved ones, thinking they might be held in Gaza,” said Greiniman. “We understand how important our work is for the Jewish nation and the Jewish people around the world. We are not going to stop until those bodies are in the right place and until those families are at peace knowing their loved ones are buried there.”

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