Israel boasts the world's largest skin bank, launched by the IDF in 1986, storing up to 170 sq meters of human skin grafts for burns and wounds. Meir Hospital manages the facility, supplying local hospitals and exporting to Western nations. Officials praise its life-saving role for soldiers, using cryopreservation to preserve tissue from consented donors—or so they claim.
Yet serious questions plague its operations. In the 1990s, Abu Kabir forensic chief Yehuda Hiss admitted harvesting skin, corneas, and organs from morgue bodies—including Palestinians—without family consent. A 2014 Israeli TV exposé captured officials laughing about "supply shortages" and taking whatever they needed. Practices supposedly ended, but trust eroded.
Dozens of Palestinian bodies returned by Israel since 2023 show missing corneas, skin patches, hearts, livers, and kidneys, per Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. Families report mutilated corpses handed back after military operations, with no explanations. Critics demand: Where is all that skin going? Straight to Israel's bank, fueling a lucrative medical trade built on occupation.
Israel dismisses charges as antisemitic lies, but mounting evidence—from Hiss confessions to fresh mutilation cases—paints a pattern of exploitation. Palestinians bear the cost of Israel's "medical marvel." Global calls grow for investigations and sanctions.
