Civil defence crews uncover the bodies of Palestinians killed during Israel’s military offensive and buried at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis
Al Jazeera – Apr 23, 2024
The discovery of a mass grave inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip this week has been met with grief and horror from Palestinians and has drawn condemnation from the United Nations and calls for a transparent and credible investigation.
More than 300 bodies have been uncovered so far from the hospital after Israeli forces withdrew on April 7. The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday said more bodies were found at Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, the enclave’s largest health facility, which the rights body said was “an empty shell” after a two-week Israeli siege ended there on April 1.
The mass graves at Gaza’s two largest medical facilities are among the several discovered since Israel launched its war on the besieged coastal enclave on October 7, killing more than 34,000 Palestinians. Israel’s offensive came after Hamas fighters carried out attacks inside Israel, killing 1,139 people.
Here is what we know about the mass graves uncovered so far:
What has been found so far?
Gaza civil defence crews said more than 300 bodies have been recovered from the mass grave at the Nasser Medical Complex so far.
According to Al Jazeera’s correspondent Hani Mahmoud, those being retrieved from the grave included women, children, patients and medical staff.
He said medical staff and evacuees who had managed to leave the hospital before the Israeli army’s withdrawal had described scenes of “horror, mass killings and arrests to the point the entire hospital turned from a place of healing into a massive graveyard”.
The civil defence group on Monday said it uncovered many of the bodies from what appear to be temporary graves inside the Nasser complex as Israel’s siege prevented access to cemeteries, The Associated Press news agency reported.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman with the UN’s human rights office, said some of the bodies found at the Khan Younis hospital were “found with their hands tied and stripped of their clothes”.
What is a mass grave?
There is no international definition of a mass grave. However, forensic experts define a mass grave as a “burial site containing the remains, often commingled, of numerous persons”.
Mass graves are not necessarily burial sites or final resting places but “are places of atrocity or mass death”, a UN report published in October 2020 said.
“What distinguishes mass graves from other mass burial sites are violations of ‘last rights’ and of last rites, including suppression or even annihilation of individual, cultural or religious identity in death,” the report said.
What has been the reaction from Israelis and Palestinians?
Gaza’s Government Media Office blamed Israel for the mass graves, describing their discovery and the overall situation at Nasser Medical Complex as a “heinous crime”.
“Storming it twice, and destroying some of its parts, demonstrates the extent of the barbarism of this occupation and the immorality of its army, which destroys all aspects of life and means of survival inside the Gaza Strip,” it said in a statement.
“We call on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate this massacre committed by the occupation army in the Nasser Complex and also the al-Shifa Complex, in all its details, whether against the headquarters of the two complexes or against the citizens, the displaced, and the medical and Media teams inside it.”
The Israeli army said in a statement on Tuesday that the claim that it buried Palestinian bodies was “baseless and unfounded”.
It said that during its operation in the area of Nasser Hospital, bodies buried by Palestinians “were examined” to try “to locate hostages and missing persons”. Dozens of Israelis remain in captivity, held by Hamas and other Palestinian fighters in Gaza.
“The examination was conducted in a careful manner and exclusively in places where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages,” it said, adding that the examined bodies, which did not belong to Israeli captives, “were returned to their place”.
What has been the global reaction?
The UN called for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” of mass graves uncovered at the two hospitals.
Shamdasani called for an independent and transparent investigation into the deaths and bodies found, saying “given the prevailing climate of impunity, this should include international investigators.”
Credible investigators must have access to the sites, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The European Union on Wednesday backed a UN call for an independent probe.
“This is something that forces us to call for an independent investigation of all the suspicions and all the circumstances because indeed it creates the impression that there might have been violations of international human rights committed,” EU spokesman Peter Stano said.
“That’s why it’s important to have independent investigation and to ensure accountability.”
In Washington, US Department of State spokesman Vedant Patel described the discovery of mass graves as “incredibly troubling”, adding that US officials asked the Israeli government for information.
The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement condemned “the continued and unchecked heinous war crimes committed by the Israeli occupation forces, the latest of which is the mass graves discovered in the Nasser Medical Complex in the city of Khan Younis”.
Are there any legal ramifications?
According to UN human rights chief Volker Turk, “Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law.”
“Let’s be clear, the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat [disabled or injured] is a war crime,” he said on Tuesday.
Israeli operations in Gaza have come under heavy scrutiny from international bodies and human rights groups. A UN investigator last month said in a report that there were reasonable grounds to believe Israel has committed genocide in its war on Gaza.
In January, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel described the genocide allegation as baseless.
These worldwide protests against Israeli atrocities and the way authorities are clamping down against them are shaping up to become a serious war between humanity and Israel and Israel is just not going to win it. People were right to describe what’s coming as a spiritual war. This fight really is between good and evil.
“Israel described the genocide allegation as baseless.”
Israel has said a lot of things I consider baseless. So many things
Most Israelis killed on October 7 were killed by the Israeli Defense Forces, so stop with quoting that they were killed by Hamas. MOST, not all, were killed by scum-of-the-earth IDF forces. Will the International community do anything this time??
When will the Kikes receive their punishment? When will they be killed & forced out of Palestine? They no longer have Ukraine to fall back on; their plan for “Big Israel” has been blown away by Russia.
The most moral army in the world.” How the jewish leaders of the Zionist Bolshevik state can utter such is another example of what they are. So, what are they? The answer lies in those who hear such as this, but know what they do. Know them by what they do, not what they say.
The Jews are provocateurs in peacetime,
saboteurs in wartime,
and subversives all the time…
applies to the Zionist jews of Israel and their partisans and minions world-wide.
It also applies to the bought and sold goyim, who have sold their soul, their morality for jewish money, to make their country a Z-jCC, or Zionist-jewish Conquered Country.
And a Z-jCC will join Israel to war on its behalf.
Huh?
Why is it almost ever time I see live refugees they look like they just bought new clothes ie clean ?
Similarly , in the photo above….makes no sense.
The white shrouds look new /spotless.
Looks like another staged photo opp.
“palestinians caught redhanded blaming their own massgrave on Israel” .. source The Gateway Pundit.
At least 200 bodies had been retrieved from two mass graves in the medical compound as of Sunday noon local time.
As the search continued, rescuers estimated there to be at least 400 bodies.
The Gaza government media office said some of bodies found had been decapitated, and had their skin and organs removed.
According to Al Jazeera, the bodies of children, elderly women and young men were among those found.
Rescue teams said some bodies had their hands bound behind their backs, suggesting they were executed and buried on the spot.
As news of the mass graves spread, many people arrived at the hospital in the hope of finding members of their family who had gone missing.
The mass graves were discovered weeks after Israeli troops ended a three-month invasion of Khan Younis, during which ground forces repeatedly attacked Nasser hospital.
The hospital, Gaza’s second-largest and the ‘backbone’ of the health system in southern Gaza, was put out of service after deadly Israeli raids in February, when 10,000 people had been sheltering at the medical complex.
The army stormed the hospital twice following a weeks-long siege in January, during which 200 people were detained according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, and hundreds of patients and displaced people sheltering in the building were forcibly removed.
Medical staff reported being stripped naked, beaten and humiliated by Israeli forces, with many staff and patients targeted by sniper fire.
In March, the BBC released verified footage showing detained and kneeling people inside the complex following the raid. It also verified footage documenting 21 instances of fire targeting staff and patients during the siege.
Health officials said there was no power and not enough staff in the hospital to treat around 200 patients who remained there after the siege.
According to Palestinian health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra, the hospital’s generators failed, cutting the water supply, while sewage flooded emergency rooms, making it impossible for the remaining staff to treat intensive care patients.
He added that a lack of oxygen supplies, also a result of no power, caused the deaths of at least seven patients.
Israel said the hospital was housing Hamas fighters, a claim it has regularly made when attacking hospitals in Gaza despite not having produced any credible evidence of a military presence inside them.
More mass graves
This is not the first mass grave that has been unearthed at a medical facility in the Strip.
The discovery follows another earlier this month at al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, formerly Gaza’s largest hospital, which was left in ruins after a two-week assault by Israeli forces in late March.
Several bodies were found on Monday in the hospital’s courtyard, including at least one person wearing underwear who appeared to have been ‘executed recently’, according to an Al Jazeera Arabic reporter at the scene.
After Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital on 1 April, having destroyed most of the medical complex, teams from several government ministries were deployed to al-Shifa to remove and identify bodies.
The searches were initiated after survivors said they witnessed the summary execution of Palestinians by Israeli forces during the raid.
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The Gaza government media office said some of bodies found had been decapitated, and had their skin and organs Removed..
DO NOTICE THAT THIS ARTICLE POSTED IN THE TRUTHSEEKER DOESN’T MENTION THAT THE BODIES WERE DECAPITATED AND SKIN AND ORGAN REMOVED..🥲🥶🥴😵😵💫🤬🤬🤬😠
Why arent the courts worldwide indicting the Israelis for war crimes – issue arrest warrants – send in an army and make the arrests.
Jews get a free pass every time.
Biden and his administration also need to stand trial – aiding and abetting is just as guilty of an act.
@michael
‘The Jews are provocateurs in peacetime,
saboteurs in wartime,
and subversives all the time…’
– sums them up perfectly
this should be scrawled on walls in every city around the world to wake people up.
Their ONLY aim is destruction