By Palestine Chronicle Staff 
Hundreds of bodies have been recovered so far from the mass grave at the medical complex after the Israeli army withdrew from the city on April 7.
More than 520 bodies were found in seven mass graves at hospitals in Gaza, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Strip said Saturday.
“We found 80 bodies in three mass graves in the courtyards of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and dozens more inside the hospital departments,” the ministry said in a statement.
“A virtual examination of the bodies exhumed from mass graves showed that the largest number of bodies belonged to patients who were deprived of health care,” it added.
Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) expressed their deep concern on Friday over the discovery of mass graves in the war-torn Gaza Strip.
UNSC Calls for Investigation
In a press statement, The Council members expressed their deep concern over reports of the discovery of mass graves, in and around the Nasser and Al Shifa medical facilities in Gaza, where several hundred bodies, including women, children and older persons, were buried.
They underlined the need for accountability for violations of international law and called for investigators to be allowed unimpeded access to all locations of mass graves in Gaza to conduct immediate, independent, thorough, comprehensive, transparent and impartial investigations to establish the circumstances behind the graves.
The Council members reiterated their demand that all parties scrupulously comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in particular regarding the protection of civilians and civilian objects.
They reaffirmed the importance of allowing families to know the fate and whereabouts of their missing relatives, consistent with international humanitarian law.
They emphasized the imperative of all parties to immediately and fully implement resolutions 2728 (2024), 2720 (2023) and 2712 (2023).
Mass Graves
Hundreds of bodies have been recovered so far from the mass grave at the medical complex after the Israeli army withdrew from the city on April 7, according to Al-Jazeera. The army’s withdrawal followed a four-month ground offensive.
These individuals, belonging to various groups and age ranges, were killed by the Israeli military during their incursion into the Nasser complex, with a significant number being women and children.
Hamas spokesperson Abd al-Latif al-Qanou said in a statement last month that the recovery of the bodies was “additional evidence of the bloodiness of the occupation, its Nazism, and the extent of the genocide it is practicing” against the Palestinian people.
Press Statement by the Security Council on mass graves in Gaza calling for investigators to be allowed to conduct immediate, independent, thorough, and impartial investigation 🇵🇸🇺🇳 pic.twitter.com/8hNm3095od
— State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) May 10, 2024
“Mass graves and daily genocide against our people require international and political pressure to activate UN and international resolutions and implement the precautionary measures” taken by the World Court “to protect our people and save them from the genocidal war.”
Israeli forces withdrew from the Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex, in Gaza City, on April 1, after a two-week long invasion. The hospital complex was left in ruins and completely out of service.
Gaza Genocide
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 34,971 Palestinians have been killed, and 78,641 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
(PC, Anadolu)
