What is known about the allegations of mass graves in Gaza?

Updated an hour ago

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said that he was horrified by the news of the destruction of Nasser and Al Shifa Hospitals and the discovery of mass graves in the region after the Israeli attacks in Gaza.

Palestinian authorities recently announced that more than 300 bodies were exhumed from mass graves at Nasser Hospital.

Following the operation of Israeli special forces, it was reported that bodies were found in the area where Al-Shifa hospital is located.

Volker Türk called for an independent investigation into the deaths.

It is unclear how these people died and when they were buried.

The Israeli army claimed that the claim that they buried the bodies themselves was “unfounded and unfounded”.

However, army officials reported in February that troops searching for Israeli hostages examined bodies previously buried by Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and left the bodies in the same place when the examination was completed.

In a written statement made by the army, it was said: “The examination was carried out carefully and only in places where intelligence indicated that hostages might be present.”

The 10 hostages released so far said they had stayed in Nasser Hospital for a long time.

On the other hand, before the Israeli attack, hospital staff stated that some bodies were buried in the hospital garden because the cemeteries could not be reached due to conflicts.

Similar information had come from Al-Shifa Hospital before Israel’s attack in November.

The Israeli army attacked some hospitals in Gaza on the grounds that Hamas members were operating there. Hamas and medical officials rejected this claim.

United Nations Human Rights Office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said that the human rights organization was alarmed due to the discovery of many bodies.

Shamdasani stated that efforts were being made to verify the information given by the Palestinian authorities about the 283 bodies buried in the garden of Nasser Hospital, 42 of which were identified, and said:

“It is stated that the victims were buried deep and covered with debris. It is claimed that the elderly, women and the injured were among the dead, and some of them were buried naked with their hands tied behind their backs.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said, “According to international humanitarian law, hospitals have a very special protection. Intentional killing of civilians, detainees and those not participating in the conflict is also a war crime.”

The US State Department also said the allegations were “deeply disturbing”.

Reuters news agency reported on Monday that emergency workers were trying to exhume bodies from the rubble of Nasser Hospital.

According to Reuters, the Hamas-run Civil Emergency Service in Gaza said on Tuesday that a total of 310 bodies have been found so far in the mass grave in Nasser, and that two more graves have been identified but have not yet been excavated.

The Palestinian health ministry also repeated this figure.

A spokesperson for the Hamas-run Civil Defense Force told BBC Arabic on Monday that there were reports that “many people” from Palestinians in the region who died during the war and were buried in the hospital garden were moved to another location during the Israeli attack.

“After our investigations, we learned that the occupation (Israeli) army opened a mass grave and took out those buried in Nasser Hospital and buried them in a mass grave,” Mahmoud Basal said.

An eyewitness speaking to BBC Arabic also stated that he was looking for the bodies of his two male relatives, who he claimed were taken by Israeli soldiers from Khan Younis, where Israel had recently completed its attack.

Hamas also claimed that those buried included those “executed in cold blood” by Israeli forces, but did not provide any evidence.

Israeli soldiers withdrew from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza city on April 1 and said that “200 terrorists” around the hospital were killed in the two-week attack.

A World Health Organization (WHO) delegation, which arrived at the hospital five days later, announced that a significant part of the hospital had been destroyed or suffered major damage, and that most of the materials had become unusable.

The panel also said there were “numerous shallow graves” just outside the emergency department and that “many bodies were partially buried with their arms and legs visible.”

The UN Human Rights Office stated that they received news that 30 bodies were buried in two graves in the garden of Al-Shifa Hospital.

The Israeli army again claimed that harming the patients was avoided. However, WHO reported that at least 20 patients died during the Israeli army’s siege.