There are suspicions that Israel has stolen organs (corneas, livers, etc) from Palestinian martyrs.

Question

“We also have serious suspicions that Israel has stolen organs from some of these martyrs—corneas, livers, and other internal organs—which were clearly missing when the bodies were examined.”

www.palestinechronicle.com/israel-bombe...

Answer 1

The claim that there are suspicions of Israel stealing organs from Palestinian bodies is indisputably true. However, the implied claim that Israel is stealing organs is not backed by any hard evidence found by an independent investigator.

In an article posted by Euro-Med Monitor in November 2023, it was stated that medical professionals in Gaza quickly examined Palestinian bodies after they were handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross to be buried. These professionals supposedly found evidence of organ theft, including missing cochleas, corneas, livers, kidneys, and hearts. Euro-Med Monitor was then told by doctors at several Gazan hospitals that organ theft cannot be proven or disproven solely based on forensic medical examination. Euro-Med Monitor provided no link or physical copy of the report. These suspicions may be built on the fact that Israel has stolen organs from Palestinians in the past, according to an interview with the head of Israel's Abu Kabir forensic institute, Dr. Jehuda Hiss. In this interview, Hiss admitted that, in the 1990's, forensic pathologists harvested organs from dead bodies of Palestinians without the permission of their families (NBC News, The Guardian). When the interview was released, the Israeli military confirmed that the practice took place and stated, as of 2009: "This activity ended a decade ago and does not happen any longer,".

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a youth-led independent nonprofit based in Switzerland that is funded through individual donations (Media Bias/Fact Check). They are known as heavily left-leaning and have been said to be anti-Israel due to their tendency to bend narratives via rhetoric and headlines.

Answer 2

The claim that there are suspicions that Israel has stolen organs is true. However, whether or not Israel is actually harvesting organs from Palestinians is difficult to asses due to the ongoing conflict. 

The claim links an article that says the Palestinian officials suspect that Israel and that there are currently 11,000 Palestinian hostages in Israel's possession. However, it does not go in-depth into extremities which provide a basis for the suspicions. In an article written by Mohamed Majed and Mohammad Sio (https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/gaza-authorities-accuse-israel-of-stealing-organs-from-released-palestinian-bodies/3719641), they both describe the condition of the bodies returned by Israel and that they “arrived in deplorable condition, showing evidence of field executions and systematic torture” (Majed and Sio, 17 Oct 2025). Majed and Sio both write that when the hostages were returned, “Parts of many corpses were missing, including eyes, corneas, and other organs” (Majed and Sio, 17 Oct 2025). However Majed and Sio write that Thwabta confirms that from these returned corpses it can be concluded that that the Israeli army “stole human organs while holding the bodies” (Majed and Sio, 17 Oct 2025). However in another article written in 2023 by the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor organization (https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/5982/Int%E2%80%99l-committee-must-investigate-Israel%E2%80%99s-holding-of-dead-bodies-in-Gaza%E2%80%8B)  the organization brings up the fact that "Doctors at several Gazan hospitals told the Euro-Med Monitor team that organ theft cannot be proven or disproven solely by forensic medical examination" and also state that "it was impossible for them to conduct a full analytical examination of the recovered corpses given the intense air and artillery attacks and influx of wounded civilians" (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor 26 Nov 2023). 

In conclusion, the claim that there are suspicions going around that Israel army is stealing organs from the bodies of Palestinians is true, we can't actually know whether or not the Israel army is actually stealing organs due to ongoing conflict.

Answer 3

This claim cannot be fact-checked until more evidence from a verifiable source comes out. All of the articles on specifically this press release refer to quotes from Dr. Ismail Al-Thawabata and say that this information was given to Al-Jazeera, the news site, directly. I was unable to find any source other than ones that seem to be quoting the Al-Jazeera article, or using information from QudsNet/EuroMedMonitor, all of which are considered heavily biased sources by mediabiasfactcheck.com. This entire situation is a he-said, she-said, and until the official government comes out with a press release featuring the medical examiner or coroner, we won't know whether or not there was mass organ stealing.

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/10/15/gaza-medics-find-signs-of-torture-on-palestinian-bodies-returned-by-israel

https://qudsnen.co/executed-blindfolded-and-handcuffed-returned-palestinian-bodies-show-signs-of-severe-torture/

https://www.mofa.pna.ps/en-us/

Answer 4

I have had a hard time finding any articles that are able to definitively fact check this claim. However, there are many articles that show there have been instances of organ harvesting without proper protocol. The claim links to an article that states Palestinian officials suspect that Israel is currently holding 11,000 Palestinian hostages, but does not go into the details behind these suspicions. https://www.adl.org/resources/article/unfounded-claims-organ-harvesting-reignite-embers-decades-old-hospital-scandal. This link goes into the history of Israel's long-lasting accusations of harvesting organs in the aftermath of the October 7th massacres. It goes into detail about the origins of how claims like this have popped up, with its ties to the blood libel trope that goes back to the Middle Ages and alleges that Jews used the blood of Christian children to bake their passover bread. It also talks about a case that brought many of these concerns of organ harvesting to the spotlight in 2009, where an Israeli facility (the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute) took organs from IDF soldiers, Israeli civilians, Palestinians, and others whose corpses came into the institute. The Chief pathologist at the time, Dr. Yehuda Hiss, was also on record for having many scandals surface during his time at the institute and even the families of dead Israeli soldiers were upset about Hiss's conduct. Unfortunately, while that article does not come out and claim Israel is harvesting Palestinian organs, another article I found gives a lot of evidence for these claims to be true. A submitted report concerning crimes involving the harvesting of organs from Palestinian martyrs, particularly children, was made, and the article also details how, since 2014, the occupied territories in Palestine have experienced an increase in shoot-to-kill incidents and the detention of Palestinians by Israeli occupation forces. This then ties into how Israel holds the bodies of Palestinian martyrs without disclosing any information on them afterward, opening the door for exploitation of Palestinian dead bodies. https://www.solidarity-ps.org/en/Stealing_Martyrs_Organs.