Lucile Marbeau, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), spoke on franceinfo following the exhumation of several hundred bodies in mass graves in a hospital in Gaza.
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“No one should be thrown into mass graves”, was outraged Thursday April 25 on franceinfo Lucile Marbeau, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), while the Gaza Civil Defense claimed to have exhumed since Saturday 340 bodies of people killed and buried, according to her, by Israeli forces in mass graves in the Nasser hospital in Khan Younes. After this discovery, the White House on Wednesday demanded “answers” Israeli authorities.
Lucile Marbeau recalls that “In all conflicts, there is an obligation on the part of the belligerents to manage mortal remains with dignity and respect”. In these obligations, “there is the fact of collecting the bodies, managing them in a dignified manner, but also making every effort possible to identify them”. She judges that in the Gaza Strip, “this was not the case”.
The ICRC spokesperson notes that “These are families who travel directly to try to see if their missing loved ones are among these bodies”.
“There are a lot of families who are unable to mourn because they don’t know if their loved ones are dead or alive, if they are under the rubble, if they are among all these bodies that have been found in the hospital.”
Lucile Marbeau, spokesperson for the ICRCat franceinfo
To date, the ICRC has collected “more than 7 000 search requests from Palestinian families”specifies the spokesperson. “But we know, and this is the case in all conflicts, that the figure is much higher.” And in Gaza, which is “another battlefield”he is “extremely complicated to be able to take all the necessary steps” to identify the bodies.
But the ICRC assures that there is “things that can be done to ensure a dignified burial” and harvest “a minimum of information in order to be able to respond to families who still do not know what happened to their loved ones.”
“The population is at the end of its rope”
Lucile Marbeau is also concerned about the preparations announced by Israel for a land offensive in Rafah. “The prospect is absolutely frightening. You have to imagine that there are still 1.5 million people today who find themselves at Rafah and who, already, lack assistance.” She points to the “deplorable conditions” in which they live in the camps, “in terms of hygiene”and that “are looking for ways to feed their child and find drinking water” or to have access to care which is “extremely restricted throughout the Gaza Strip.”
“The population is at the end of its rope”adds Lucile Marbeau. “And the prospect of further displacement is absolutely unimaginable. Humanitarian organizations would find themselves absolutely incapable of providing them with the minimum subsistence.”