Several Palestinians suffered from tear gas suffocation on Sunday, fired by the Israeli occupation army to disperse a protest in the city center of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank.

The protest was held to demand the return of Palestinian bodies held by Israel, on the sidelines of the annual National Day for the Recovery of Bodies on August 27, organized by the National Campaign for the Recovery of Martyrs and Missing Bodies affiliated with the Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (Ahli).

Eyewitnesses told Anadolu Agency that several Palestinians suffered tear gas suffocation fired by Israeli forces around Ibn Rushd Roundabout in central Hebron to disperse participants demanding the return and burial of Palestinian bodies held by Israel.

The National Campaign said in a statement that “the Israeli targeting of the protest is an extension of a systematic policy through which the occupation seeks to punish the families of martyrs and deprive them of their basic rights by holding bodies in refrigerators and numbered graves and pursuing families when they raise their voices.”

It affirmed that “these practices will not break the families’ determination, and the right to bid farewell to martyrs and bury them is a sacred right guaranteed by international and humanitarian laws.”

It added that it “continues its work and struggle with the families of martyrs until all bodies are freed and this ongoing crime is exposed to the world.”

Last Wednesday, the National Campaign stated that Israel “continues to hold the bodies of 726 martyrs in refrigerators and numbered graves, including 256 martyrs buried in numbered graves.”

“Numbered graves” are simple graves surrounded by stones without headstones, with a metal plate on each grave bearing a number instead of the name of the deceased, and each number has a special file held by Israeli security agencies.

Palestinians annually commemorate on August 27 the “National Day for the Recovery of Palestinian and Arab Martyrs’ Bodies,” which was approved by the Cabinet on August 3, 2008.