The Israeli occupation army on Thursday handed over to the Palestinian Authority the battered bodies of three Palestinian boys whom its soldiers beat to death last week.

The three boys have been identified as Ahmed Banat, 15, Muhammed Labad, 16, and Abdul Rahman Labad, all from the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.

The Israeli army said the three boys were captured and killed when they were spotted near the Jewish settlement of Eli Sinaei.

Hospital sources in Gaza reported that the bodies of the victims "bore unmistakable evidence of torture."

"There were many stab wounds on their bodies, and their heads were bludgeoned with stones and clubs."

The Palestinian Authority described the torture and subsequent murder of the three boys as "a nefarious crime to be added to Israel's long record of murder."

"We must remember that the three boys were unarmed, and they didn't endanger anybody's life," said Muawiya Hasanin, a PA health official in Gaza.

The Israeli army had kept the bodies of the three boys for five days without explanation.