After being shot in the leg by a Qassam Brigades sniper, Aaron Bors, a New York-born reservist, became one of thousands of Israeli soldiers undergoing rehabilitation programs developed by the state.
Throughout this brutal war, Israel has capitalized on the bodies of Palestinian victims, enhancing its stock of ‘human spare parts.’
This is no longer a secret; it is the dark reality faced by the innocent living under skies clouded with the smoke of bombs and chemical missiles indiscriminately decimating all life in Gaza.
At a time when the Palestinian people are already suffering from a humanitarian catastrophe in healthcare due to the deliberate targeting of hospitals, monitoring of medical teams, and booby-trapping of ambulances, the wounded soldiers of the occupation, in contrast, receive superior medical care, including both physical and psychological treatment.
Using corpses for burn treatment
In cases where Israeli soldiers suffer severe burns, a special treatment is used that can only be described as ‘gruesome.’
This technique involves grafting skin stolen from the corpses of Palestinian victims, which has been stored in the Israel National Skin Bank, in collaboration between the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps and the Ministry of Health.
Medical personnel have relied on grafting viable skin grafts to treat burn victims from wars or mass casualty events, according to a report by Euronews.
The report explained the possibility of preserving skin for up to five years, and when necessary, implanting it into the patient’s body as a biological dressing that integrates with the original skin tissue.
Disrespecting the dead
Since the Gaza war broke out 445 days ago,numerous international reports have surfaced exposing the Israeli occupation’s crimes against Palestinian prisoners and victims.
The authorities deliberately concealed the bodies of prisoners who had died as a result of torture, so they could skin them and store their flesh in vats filled with glycerin, placed in refrigeration units to be preserved for as long as possible.
According to an investigation by Israel’s Channel 10, Israel’s reserve of human skin has reached 168 square meters by the end of 2023.
This is backed up by shocking reports from families of prisoners whose bodies were exchanged as part of a prisoner release deal between Hamas and Israel, who then discovered that the skin of their loved ones had been gruesomely removed.
There were even cases of stolen corneas, livers, and lungs.
The idea behind creating a skin bank
The investigation revealed the director of the Israeli Skin Bank, Malka Shauot, stating that her country’s reserves in this field placed it 33rd among 55 leading countries in organ transplantation.
The bank relies on a system of storing human skin samples for use in grafting or skin transplantation for soldiers injured in Israeli wars.
The idea was presented to the decision-makers of the Hebrew community after the 1973 October War, but was rejected by Jewish rabbis.
Faced with an urgent need and the community’s reluctance to donate organs after death, the skin bank was established in 1986, and now robs Palestinians of the peace and dignity they deserve in death.
