One by one, the bodies of 54 unidentified Palestinians, which had been handed over by Israeli authorities, were buried in the sandy soil of Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on Wednesday, as the exchange of remains between Israel and Hamas continues.
The Israeli military said the deceased had been combatants in the Gaza Strip, an assertion that The New York Times could not independently verify.
After prayers at the burial ceremony, officials from the Hamas-backed government media office addressed reporters. Flags of an allied militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, fluttered behind the officials.
Forensic doctors at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, which received the remains, say they have been unable to identify roughly two-thirds of the bodies.
That has left Gazan health officials and families with many unanswered questions about who the dead were, the circumstances of their deaths and what had happened to them before they died.
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