More than 280 bodies were discovered in mass graves in the courtyard of the Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, which had been the target of an Israeli raid, the Gaza Civil Defense reported on Monday, April 22. The Israeli military, which has indicated that it is verifying these claims, has not yet reacted to this information.
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Bodies of hundreds of Palestinians were buried in mass graves in the courtyard of the Nasser hospital. The civil defense of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave scene of an Israeli offensive that has left more than 34,000 dead, stated on Monday, April 22, that in the last three days it had exhumed some 200 bodies of people allegedly murdered and buried by the Israeli forces in mass graves inside Khan Younis hospital.
“Our teams continue to find bodies inside the Nasser Medical Complex and since Saturday the bodies of about 200 martyrs have been exhumed,” said Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal.
Due to the decomposition of some of the bodies, “the identification process is difficult, but efforts must continue,” he added.
The Israeli Army, which says its target is the Hamas group, author of an attack on October 7 that left 1,200 dead in Israel, did not immediately comment on the situation.
Mohammed al-Mughayer, a Gaza Strip Civil Defense official, said a total of 283 bodies had been found in the graves at the Nasser hospital.
“So far, we have found the buried bodies of 283 peoplemurdered in cold blood by the Israeli occupation army,” declared Ismail al-Thawabteh, head of the Communications Department of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls the enclave. “We call for an international investigation into these crimes against civilians. , children and women,” he added.
Possible cases of torture
Some of the bodies “were without clothes, which undoubtedly indicates that they were detained, tortured and subjected to ill-treatment by the occupation army,” stated the Gaza Civil Defense.
A photographer from the AFP news agency saw members of the Civil Defense exhuming human remains in the hospital courtyard on Sunday. AFP images show Gazans gathered in the same place, searching for missing relatives.
Among the crowd is Oum Mohammed al-Harazeen, who is looking for her husband.
“He has been missing for about a month. He only came out to bring us food and water. He disappeared when the Israeli Army entered Khan Younis,” he says.
Continuous controls by the Israeli Army
The Israeli Army withdrew from Khan Younis on April 7 after carrying out what it called a “precise and limited operation” in this hospital, one of the largest in Gaza.
Questioned by AFP, the Israeli Army claimed to be verifying these claims.
This discovery comes at a time when the United States, Israel's staunch ally, has approved $13 billion in military aid for its ally. According to Hamas, Washington has given Israel a “green light” to continue its “aggression” against the Palestinians.
Gaza Civil Defense also reported that Israeli strikes on two houses in Rafah, in the south of the enclave, had killed at least 16 people on Sunday.
New Israeli military operation in Khan Younis
In parallel, Israeli troops made a new incursion into Khan Younis on Monday, April 22, according to residents of the area.
It is a surprise incursion, after Israel withdrew most of its ground troops from the southern Gaza Strip around April 7 and 8, following some of the most intense fighting of a war that has now lasted seven months.
![People ride a donkey cart as it passes a destroyed building in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on April 22, 2024.](https://s.france24.com/media/display/9df2b734-00e2-11ef-9b6c-005056bf30b7/khan3.jpg)
Local residents who had fled began returning to their homes and found a city destroyed by months of war. The new Israeli military operation forced residents of the area to flee again.
“This morning many families who had left here in the last two weeks to return to Abassan returned. They were too scared,” Ahmed Rezik, 42, told Reuters from a school where he is sheltering in the western part of Khan Younis. referring to a district in the east of the area.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 34,097 Palestinians have died since October 7, 2023 and the start of the war, most of them civilians.
This text was adapted from its original in French.
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