The Palestinian Authority (PA) has called on the United Nations to pressure Israel to release corpses of Palestinians Tel Aviv has been withholding and refuses to hand them over to their families. Palestine sent a letter to the UN special rapporteurs demanding them to exert pressure on Israel to refrain from its brutal and barbaric policy of seizing the bodies of the martyrs and to abolish any laws that allow such action. It called for the immediate return of the bodies and requested real, impartial, independent and effective probes into the deaths of detainees and peaceful protesters. The letter was sent by the State of Palestine’s Permanent Observer to the UN in Geneva, on behalf of the Palestinian state, to several rapporteurs. These include the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, as well as the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, the Special Rapporteur concerned with freedom of religion and belief, and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-repetition. The letter stressed ensuring accountability and deterrence of Israel, the occupying power, from seizing Palestinian corps, especially those of minors and detainees. It also called for urging Israel to publish its own rules of engagement on the use of live ammunition, regulate the use of lethal fire and respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law. The Observer further called on the international community to provide protection for the Palestinian people and put an end to Israel’s systematic and discriminatory policies and support the work of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court on its preliminary study of the situation in Palestine. It urged the special rapporteurs to initiate a criminal investigation into the repatriation of the bodies, including the development of a DNA test and registration service, and to facilitate the proper identification and burial of the bodies and remains. Israel has been illegally detaining 66 bodies of Palestinian martyrs in refrigerators, and had buried 254 Palestinians in mass graves, denying them the right to a dignified burial. “The policy of detaining the bodies and its impact on families amount to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, in violation of Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and customary international law, which prohibits torture and ill-treatment, including Rule 90 of the customary international law study, which Israel is obligated to do,” the letter read. This policy “deprives Palestinian victims and their afflicted families from investigating the circumstances of the killings, in violation of Israel’s obligation to investigate, punish, and address arbitrary deprivation of life, including the obligation to allow an adequate medical autopsy by an independent forensic examiner if the family requests it,” it added.