Call for international inquiry as 49 bodies found in mass grave at Al Shifa Hospital
At least 49 bodies have been found buried near Al Shifa Hospital in the latest discovery of a mass grave within a medical compound in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian group Hamas, which rules Gaza, said on Thursday that the latest discovery demanded international attention, calling it a “horror that has exceeded the limits of human imagination”.
It is the third mass grave discovered at Al Shifa in Gaza city.
It was once the enclave’s largest medical compound but it has been destroyed by the Israeli army.
“Recovery operations are still ongoing,” local government officials said. “We are expecting to find dozens [more].”
The dead were medical, nursing and administrative staff who had been working at Al Shifa Hospital, the local officials said.
Hundreds of patients and displaced people had also been killed, it said.
Seven mass graves have so far been found around Gaza on hospital grounds, containing a total of 520 bodies. In addition to the three discovered at Al Shifa, one was found at Kamal Adwan in the northern part of the strip, and another three at Al Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis in the south.
Last month, at least 300 bodies were found in Al Nasser, which had been raided and severely damaged by Israeli forc
es. Some had been stripped naked, with their hands tied. Speaking to The National from the scene at the time, civil defence official Mohammad Massoud said most of the bodies were unidentified as they had decomposed or were in pieces.
“We found bones of children, women and men,” he said, adding that the bodies were dealt with “savagely” and there had been no respect for the dead.
“Most of the bodies were not in shrouds,” he said.
At least 20 of those unearthed at Al Nasser complex were believed to have been buried alive, officials said.
Hamas called on human rights groups to gather the evidence and submit it to the International Criminal Court so that those responsible could be prosecuted.
Meanwhile, Palestine’s envoy to the UN urged the Security Council to call for independent investigations into the mass graves discovered at Al Shifa and Nasser hospitals.
Riyad Mansour stressed the need to “establish the precise circumstances under which hundreds of Palestinians lost their lives and were buried, or reburied”.
In a letter to council members, he wrote: “The time for accountability is long past due.”
Israel has denied responsibility for the mass graves.
The Israeli army launched weeks-long raids on several hospitals, killing and displacing medical staff and patients. The army had claimed those buildings were being used as command centres by Hamas.
Hospital authorities and Hamas denied the claims.
The discovery comes as civil defence units in Gaza are struggling to retrieve the bodies of more than 10,000 believed to be buried under the rubble of hundreds of homes destroyed by Israeli fire.
Authorities in Gaza said last week they were receiving requests from families for help to retrieve bodies from residential buildings that were destroyed months ago.
The UN and other international organisations estimate that more than two thirds of houses in Gaza have been destroyed by the war.
According to a recent report by the World Bank, about $18.5 billion will be needed to rebuild the Gaza Strip.
It said that the estimate could rise once assessments are made inside the enclave.
Civil defence units are struggling to retrieve more than 10,000 bodies believed to be under the rubble of homes