Return of Palestinian Bodies Essential To Peace Process - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Daoud Kuttab

Daoud Kuttab

Aug 16, 2013

Palestinian women watch the funeral of Moataz Sharawneh in the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron July 2, 2013. Israeli soldiers shot dead Sharawneh during a confrontation in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said Palestinians threw rocks at soldiers who were on routine duties in Dura. REUTERS/Ammar Awad (WEST BANK - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTX11A6N — Palestinian women watch the funeral of Moataz Sharawneh in the West Bank village of Dura, near Hebron, July 2, 2013. — REUTERS/Ammar Awad

As the second round of face-to-face peace talks got underway, another emotional issue has arisen. The return of the bodies of Palestinians killed in the decadeslong conflict with Israel.

Simultaneously with the resumption of peace talks, the Israeli high court has been hearing a petition by families of 15 Palestinians killed years ago, and whose bodies have been kept by the Israelis since.

Men excavate remains from a mass grave on the outskirts of Saadia in Diyala province, January 15, 2015. The mass grave contained the remains of more than 25 men who were killed by Islamic State fighters, a hospital official said. Picture taken January 15, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS SOCIETY CONFLICT) - RTR4LR1N

Iraqi authorities work to identify bodies in mass graves

Wassim Bassem

Wassim Bassem

Smoke is seen after an after an Israeli air strike, witnessed by a Reuters journalist, out of a floor in a building that also houses media offices in Gaza City November 19, 2012. An Islamic Jihad local commander was killed on Monday in an Israeli air strike on a tower block that houses many international media, a source in the militant group said. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (GAZA - Tags: MILITARY CONFLICT MEDIA) - RTR3AM74

Report Notes Restrictions On Israeli, Palestinian Journalists

Daoud Kuttab

Daoud Kuttab

In Amman, reporting on Palestinian politics

A Bedouin boy rides a donkey near a sign in the West Bank village of Wadi al-Maleh, near the border with Jordan April 29, 2013. Israeli soldiers on Monday evicted several hundred Bedouins from the village in the occupied West Bank after the army declared the area a live-fire training zone. The residents of Wadi al-Maleh, a village mostly inhabited by shepherds in the arid area, had almost all left their homes by an evening curfew and retreated to neighbouring villages, a local leader told Reuters. REUTERS/M

Israeli Army Seeks to Evict Villagers to Expand Firing Zone

Daoud Kuttab

Daoud Kuttab

In Amman, reporting on Palestinian politics

An elderly Palestinian walks through a cemetery in Hebron, with in the background an old market building along al-Shuhada Street that was designated by Israel to be a new settlement, with existing settler buildings behind, West Bank, Jan. 28, 2020.

Israel buries Palestinians in numbered graves

Hana Salah

Hana Salah