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Israel holding Gaza militants' bodies as bargaining chips

Israel decided not to return the bodies of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas members until some progress is made on returning the Israeli civilians and the bodies of IDF soldiers held by Hamas.
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Two human rights groups, Israel's Adalah (Justice in Arabic) and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in the Gaza Strip, withdrew their petition to the Supreme Court Nov. 6 that demanded Israel allow Hamas forces to extricate five missing Palestinians from a tunnel extending from the southern Gaza Strip, which the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) blew up last week. The decision came following an announcement from Israel that it has the bodies of the five Palestinians, who were considered missing until then.

The petition — also on behalf of the father of one of the missing Palestinians, Hassan Abd al-Jalil Sabah — was submitted to the Supreme Court Nov. 2. The impetus was a decision by the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai to turn down a request by the Red Cross to allow Hamas to send rescue teams to the tunnel in order to locate any trapped Palestinians and provide any who are still alive with medical aid. "Israel would not allow search efforts in the Gaza Strip security zone without progress on the issue of Israeli POWs [prisoners of war] and MIAs [those missing in action]," Mordechai told Jacques de Maio, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross's delegation in Israel.

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