Gaza officials say 49 bodies found at Al Shifa hospital

Gaza health workers uncovered yesterday at least 49 bodies at Al Shifa hospital, a medical official and Hamas authorities said, the latest such discovery at the facility previously raided by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military has repeatedly targeted Al Shifa, the Palestinian territory’s largest hospital, and other medical facilities in its war against Hamas, triggered by the Palestinian group’s unprecedented October 7 attack.

Israel accuses Palestinian militants of using hospitals as command centres and to hold hostages abducted on October 7. Hamas denies the accusation.

Motassem Salah, head of the emergency department at Al Shifa, told journalists that “a third mass grave was found inside this hospital.”

The Hamas-run government media office said in a separate statement that at least 49 bodies had been recovered from the site on the premises of Al Shifa.

AFP footage from Al Shifa hospital showed at least a dozen bodies wrapped in black plastic body bags.

Last month, around 30 bodies were reported found buried in two other graves in the hospital courtyard.

520 bodies from 7 graves

After the Israeli assault in March, the World Health Organisation said Al Shifa had been reduced to ashes, leaving behind an “empty shell” with many bodies.

Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants at the hospital even as patients had been trapped there. The military said that over the course of the fighting, 200 militants were killed and hundreds more detained. Gaza’s Civil Defence agency reported at least “300 martyrs” in the two-week battle.

Yesterday, the media office said health workers continued to uncover bodies from the complex.

So far 520 bodies have been recovered from “seven mass graves” found at three different hospitals across Gaza in recent weeks, the media office said.