Israel’s High Court of Justice has –with a caveat — accepted the petitions filed by family members of the terrorists who died in the tunnel destroyed by the IDF on October 30 after it was discovered beneath Israeli territory close to a kibbutz.
Israel has been holding the bodies of the five Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists who were killed in the tunnel on the Israeli side of the border.
The High Court of Justice ruled in response to the petition by the families of the dead terrorists that Israel must return the bodies to Gaza.
The Court also ruled, however, that Israel has the option of choosing — within the next six months — to pass a law authorizing the defense establishment to hold the bodies indefinitely.
Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz responded to the ruling by calling for lawmakers to move quickly to pass the legislation allowing the state to hold bodies of operatives of terror groups holding Israeli hostages.
“We owe this to the families of the fallen and to the soldiers of the IDF,” he said.