On finding more burial sites across Gaza, calls for an independent inquiry are mounting. Palestinian emergency workers are continuing to uncover mass graves in and around three hospitals in the Gaza Strip, months after Israeli forces laid siege to them, claiming they were Hamas command centers.
Palestinian officials said Saturday more than 500 bodies that have been recovered with several of them showing signs of mutilation and torture amounting to war crimes. Israel has been intensifying its assault on the southern city of Rafah, having the crossing into Egypt closed and preventing any possible deployment of forensic teams or equipment into Gaza.
Three mass graves have been found at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, three at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, and one at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya.
A member of the Palestinian Civil Defence in Gaza, Mohammad Zaanin, said that a fourth gravesite containing 42 bodies had been found at al-Shifa Hospital. The bodies were decomposed and unrecognizable, but relatives identified them from clothing remnants.
A female worker, Thani Nimr Abdel Rahman, who has been working with the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp and who has visited the burial sites at al-Shifa Hospital, said she witnessed the ground being excavated using bulldozers.
Relatives of the missing are searching for pieces of clothing around the remains for a sign of their loved ones before the dead are reburied at a new site. Every so often, the corpses were left unattended. The dogs came to devour the bodies, and the smell was deadly, Abdel Rahman said. This work requires more capabilities and forensic experts, none available in Gaza.
Numerous Civil Defense members have claimed to have found evidence of ill-treatment, including torture, extrajudicial executions, and unlawful killings of noncombatants that could amount to war crimes. Rami Dababesh, a member of the Civil Defense team who took part in the exhumation work at al-Shifa Hospital, said that his team had found headless corpses.
Mohammed Mughier, a Civil Defense member said at least 10 of the bodies had been found with bound hands while others still had medical tubes attached to them. He added that additional forensic examination was needed on about 20 bodies of people who they suspected had been buried alive.
The head of the Civil Defense in Khan Younis, Yamen Abu Sulaiman, said some of the bodies found at the Nasser Medical Complex had been stacked together and showed indications of field executions having taken place. At least 392 bodies were recovered at this site alone.
Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip in retaliation for an Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack by Hamas, which killed around 1,200 people. Nearly 35,000 Palestinians have since been killed, most of them women and children, and over 78,600, others injured.
Almost 500 healthcare workers were killed in six months in this conflict, which has left Gaza’s health system in ruins. No hospital is fully functioning and only 11 out of 36 are even partially functioning.
Seven months into the conflict, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine. Israel is accused of genocide by the International Court of Justice.
An interim ruling in January said it is plausible that Tel Aviv is committing genocide in Gaza, ordering it to stop such acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza. South Africa on Friday asked the ICJ to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah as part of additional emergency measures over the war.
History will judge world leaders for their silence, while the people of Gaza continue to face death and destruction.
