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By Emma Farge
GENEVA (Reuters) - The United Nations rights chief said on Thursday the parading of the bodies of hostages in Gaza was abhorrent and flew in the face of international law.
Hamas handed over the bodies of four hostages to the Red Cross on Thursday. The coffins had been placed on a stage, with armed Hamas militants in black and camouflage uniforms surrounding the area.
The bodies of Israeli infant Kfir Bibas and his 4-year-old brother Ariel, the two youngest captives taken by Hamas in its October 7, 2023 attack, were transported to Israel.
The bodies of the children's mother Shiri Bibas and a fourth hostage, Oded Lifschitz, were also handed over, under the agreement for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in the Palestinian enclave that was reached last month.
"Under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families", U.N. rights chief Volker Turk said in an emailed statement in response to Reuters questions.
During the handover, one militant stood beside a poster of a man standing over coffins wrapped in Israeli flags. It read "The Return of the War = The Return of your Prisoners in Coffins".
Red Cross staff held up white screens in an attempt to conceal the coffins from the gaze of the large crowds as they were loaded into their vehicles.
"These operations should be done privately out of the utmost respect for the deceased and for those left grieving," the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement on Thursday.
The Hamas-directed hostage releases since the January 19 ceasefire have been characterised by large public ceremonies amid the ruins of Gaza and have come under growing criticism.
The ICRC, a neutral intermediary responsible for releasing hostages and Palestinian prisoners under the terms of the ceasefire, has repeatedly called for improvements.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Additional reporting Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Matthias Williams, Frances Kerry and Bill Berkrot)
