Haaretz reveals: Israel holding bodies of 1,700 Palestinians as bargaining chips in future talks

Pars Today — In a shocking report, Israeli newspaper Haaretz has revealed that Israel is holding the bodies of around 1,700 Palestinian martyrs so that security officials can potentially use them as leverage in future negotiations and a possible exchange for Israeli captives.

According to Pars Today, citing IRNA, Haaretz, quoting two informed sources, reported that recent discussions within Israel’s security establishment estimated the number of Palestinian bodies being held by Israel at approximately 1,700.

Haaretz said the bodies are being held for potential use in future negotiations as part of Israel’s security and military policy. The move could shed further light on Tel Aviv’s treatment of the remains of victims of the war.

In this regard, David Zini, head of Israel’s internal security and intelligence agency, the Shin Bet, reportedly argued that the bodies should continue to be held based on the possibility of future scenarios in which Israelis could be captured or go missing. The Israeli military has also backed this position.

Haaretz wrote that most of the bodies belong to Palestinians from the Gaza Strip who were martyred by Israeli forces during the war.

The newspaper added that some of the bodies are also those of civilians.

Haaretz also quoted legal sources as saying that if Israel’s political-security cabinet has not made a specific decision to retain the bodies, the regime has no legal right to continue holding the remains of Palestinians whose connection to the war has not been established.

The revelation comes as, in October 2025, the Palestinian National Campaign for the Recovery of Martyrs’ Bodies and Disclosure of the Fate of the Missing had announced that the Israeli military was holding nearly 1,500 Palestinian bodies from the Gaza Strip at the Sde Teiman detention facility in southern Occupied Territory.