Card 05 of 10 · Geneva IV · Article 130
A grave that can always be recognised
The rule that requires it
Article 130 of Geneva Convention IV — Prescriptions regarding the dead: Burial and cremation. Retrieved verbatim, 2026-08-22.
The detaining authorities shall ensure that internees who die while interned are honourably buried, if possible according to the rites of the religion to which they belonged, and that their graves are respected, properly maintained, and marked in such a way that they can always be recognized.
Deceased internees shall be buried in individual graves unless unavoidable circumstances require the use of collective graves. Bodies may be cremated only for imperative reasons of hygiene, on account of the religion of the deceased or in accordance with his expressed wish to this effect. In case of cremation, the fact shall be stated and the reasons given in the death certificate of the deceased. The ashes shall be retained for safe-keeping by the detaining authorities and shall be transferred as soon as possible to the next of kin on their request.
As soon as circumstances permit, and not later than the close of hostilities, the Detaining Power shall forward lists of graves of deceased internees to the Powers on whom the deceased internees depended, through the Information Bureaux provided for in Article 136 . Such lists shall include all particulars necessary for the identification of the deceased internees, as well as the exact location of their graves.
What the record shows instead
United States / Israel
The Conventions require the dead to be identified, recorded, decently buried and their particulars forwarded. Bodies have been returned marked only with numbers, some blindfolded, bound or bearing gunshot wounds, and buried in mass graves without identification.
3 sources
frontline
Uncertainty surrounds identities of more than 100 Palestinian bodies handed over by Israel
CNN · 2025-10-17
Palestinian forensic teams working to identify 120 bodies returned marked only with numbers, some blindfolded, bound at the hands and feet, or bearing gunshot wounds.
frontline
Calculated chaos: Inside Israel's transfer of Palestinian bodies to Gaza
+972 Magazine / Local Call · 2025
Reporting on the condition and handling of Palestinian bodies transferred back to Gaza, including the absence of identifying information.
institutional
OHCHR · 2024-07-31
Thousands of Palestinians held since October 2023 in arbitrary, prolonged and incommunicado detention, generally without being given a reason, without access to a lawyer and without effective judicial review, with allegations of torture and sexual abuse of women and men.