Mass graves containing 392 bodies, including women, children and the elderly, found in two Gaza hospitals showed signs of torture and executions, officials in the enclave said.
For the sixth straight day of bodies being unearthed in southern Gaza, Palestinian Civil Defense officials on Thursday revealed shocking new details about the mass graves surrounding Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals.
Ten of the bodies were found with their hands tied, while others still had medical tubes attached, suggesting they may have been buried alive, Civil Defense member Mohammed Mughier said.
“We need a forensic examination of about 20 bodies of people who we believe were buried alive,” Mughier said.
Yamen Abu Sulaiman, the head of the civil defense department in southern Khan Younis, where Nasser Hospital is located, said three separate mass graves were found at the facility – one behind the mortuary, one in front of the mortuary and one near the dialysis building .
Only 65 bodies had been identified by relatives of the 392 bodies recovered due to decomposition, mutilation and torture or other difficulties, he said, adding that the bodies were “piled together” and showed evidence of field executions.
At a press conference in southern Rafah on Thursday, Abu Sulaiman called on the international community to apply pressure to “put an immediate end to this aggression against our people” and to allow humanitarian organizations and international media into the Gaza Strip to “investigate this.” Crime.”
Mughier, who provided photo and video evidence of children’s remains, said: “Why do we have children in mass graves?”, adding that the evidence shows Israeli soldiers committed “crimes against humanity.”
United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk called for an “independent, effective and transparent investigation” into the deaths.
“Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law, and the intentional killing of civilians, prisoners and other victims of war is a war crime,” Turk said this week.
“We want answers. We want this to be investigated thoroughly and transparently,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters.
Israeli army spokesman Major Nadav Shoshani claimed that the graves at Nasser Hospital were “dug by residents of the Gaza Strip several months ago.” The Israeli military has also confirmed that it is digging up bodies from graves, but in a stated effort to search for prisoners still held in the enclave.
Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro reported from Washington, DC, and pointed out that Sullivan had not called for an “independent” investigation, meaning the United States was comfortable with Israel investigating the matter.
“This is the key difference between the US call for an investigation into the mass graves and the call of other world leaders and the UN High Commissioner [for human rights],” She said.
Zhou-Castro said accountability remains even further out of reach.
“As far as sentencing goes, there’s certainly more of it in the U.S. now. As far as measures are concerned, there are only measures to support Israel.”
U.S. President Joe Biden signed a $94 billion foreign financing bill on Wednesday that will provide $17 billion in additional aid to Israel, despite growing international calls for U.S. aid to Israel Restrict the military, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in Gaza.
“This is a new level of criminality and I thought the Israelis were too smart to get involved in it,” said Marwan Bishara, senior political analyst at Al Jazeera.
“The ugliness and the tragedy of the scenes and the mindset behind them – denounced by the Israelis against the hospital, against the refugee camp – is something we have never seen before and it will stay with us for a while.” ,” he added.