{"id":11091,"date":"2017-11-07T03:42:44","date_gmt":"2017-11-07T03:42:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=11091"},"modified":"2017-11-07T03:42:44","modified_gmt":"2017-11-07T03:42:44","slug":"israeli-army-withholding-bodies-of-resistance-fighters-killed-in-tunnel-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/israeli-army-withholding-bodies-of-resistance-fighters-killed-in-tunnel-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"Israeli army withholding bodies of resistance fighters killed in tunnel attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Israeli military says it is withholding the bodies of five resistance fighters, which were recovered after Israeli fighter jets bombarded and destroyed a lifeline tunnel in the southern part of the besieged Gaza Strip.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are indeed in possession of those bodies \u2026 All were killed or died inside Israeli territory, not in the Gaza Strip,\u201d Israel\u2019s military spokesman Jonathan Conricus told AFP on Sunday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At least twelve Palestinian men lost their lives\u00a0after Israel blew up the tunnel on October 30.<\/p>\n

Two of them belonged to the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, the\u00a0military wing of the Hamas resistance movement, while the rest were from al-Quds Brigades, which is the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement.<\/p>\n

Following the attack, Palestinians gathered in front of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Khan Yunis in protest at Israel\u2019s act of aggression.<\/p>\n

The tunnel, which was still under construction, reportedly belonged to Hamas and infiltrated\u00a0into the heart of occupied Palestinian territories.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Palestinian fighters from the Islamic Jihad movement attend the funeral of comrades killed in an Israeli operation to blow up a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into occupied Palestinian territories during their funeral at the Bureij refugee camp, in central Gaza, on October 31, 2017. (Photo by AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile, the Israeli\u00a0minister\u00a0of military affairs\u00a0Avigdor Lieberman\u00a0has stated that the decision on what to do with the bodies would be taken by Israel’s security cabinet, on which he sits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not a legal issue, this is a political and security issue, and if there is disagreement it will be resolved in the security cabinet and not in any other forum,\u201d he said on Israeli television on Sunday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Israeli media outlets says the Gaza resistance fighters\u2019 bodies would most likely be retained as bargaining chips to retrieve the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed in the 2014 Gaza war.<\/p>\n

Israeli officials claim that three settlers, who are all said to be mentally unstable, are also believed to have entered the Gaza Strip, and are being held by Hamas.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Mourners carry the coffin of Palestinian Islamic Jihad Movement fighter Arafat Abu Morshed during a funeral at the Bureij refugee camp, in central Gaza, for Palestinians killed in an Israeli operation to blow up a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into occupied Palestinian territories on October 31, 2017.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tunnels are the only lifeline for Palestinians living under the Israeli siege and Egypt has so far destroyed hundreds of them.<\/p>\n

Israel and the Egyptian military have launched a campaign to destroy the tunnels, preventing the people in Gaza from bringing most of their basic goods like construction materials, food, and fuel into the coastal enclave.<\/p>\n

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standards of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.<\/p>\n

The Israeli regime denies about 1.8 million people in Gaza their basic rights, such as freedom of movement, jobs with proper wages\u00a0as well as adequate healthcare and education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Israeli military says it is withholding the bodies of five resistance fighters, which were recovered after Israeli fighter jets bombarded and destroyed a lifeline tunnel in the southern part of the besieged Gaza Strip.\u00a0 \u201cWe are indeed in possession of those bodies \u2026 All were killed or died inside Israeli territory, not in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":11092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-lectures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11093,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11091\/revisions\/11093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}