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‘Great deal of shock and frustration’ among families with relatives recovered from mass graves
Investigations of mass graves, led by Gaza’s civil defence teams, have uncovered signs of executions and people being buried alive on the grounds of two of the Strip’s main hospitals.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah, said at least 20 of those whose bodies were found around Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis were buried alive, according to the findings of the investigation. Those victims had “been receiving treatment at Nasser Hospital. … The majority of the bodies have been partially or completely decomposed,” Abu Azzoum said.
The investigators also said there are still bodies that have not been recovered.
There is “a great deal of shock and frustration” among those who managed to identify their loved ones, he said. According to Abu Azzoum, there are families who still do not know the fate of their relatives who were taken from Nasser Hospital and from other parts of Khan Younis by Israeli forces during their ground incursion into the southern Gaza city.
“The reality on the ground is that the entire Gaza Strip has turned into a graveyard, especially since there are still hundreds of people under the rubble,” he said.
Israeli army rejects findings of mass graves investigation
The Israeli army has rejected widespread accusations that its forces buried hundreds of Palestinians in mass graves in the Gaza Strip as “completely false”.
Its statement comes hours after Gaza’s civil defence teams released results of investigations it led into mass graves at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, where they uncovered signs of executions and people being buried alive.
Palestinian Civil Defence member Mohammed al-Moghier said his team is ready to prepare a report for an independent investigation into the mass graves, as calls by the UN, rights groups, and nations continue to grow for an independent probe.
In its statement, the Israeli military says during the time its forces were on the ground in Khan Younis, “bodies buried by Palestinians in the Nasser Hospital area were examined as part of efforts to locate kidnapped and missing persons”.
The so-called “examination process”, it said, was carried out in an “organised manner while preserving the dignity of the deceased”. When the bodies were not identified as those “kidnapped”, Israeli forces then “returned” the bodies to their place.
It further claimed that military activity carried out in the hospital was done “without harming the hospital, patients and medical staff”. But according to the Palestinian Civil Defence, those being retrieved from the graves included women, children, patients, as well as medical staff.
Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson 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”.
I crossed out the 100% certain lies, but for the rest, how come no one has ever seen these DNA tests in action... This is what they said to CNN "The IDF has said it has removed dozens of bodies from Gaza for DNA tests in Israel, before returning the remains in containers."
Dozens is far less than the hundreds found so far. Digging up and taking bodies is a war crime as well. Returning remains in containers is not preserving the dignity of the deceased. Who are these lies for anymore? Are there still Fox viewers buying this nonsense?
UN says mandate required to take custody of Gaza mass grave evidence
Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the United Nations secretary-general, told Al Jazeera’s Kristen Saloomey during a press briefing that while the organisation is collecting information on mass graves discovered at Nasser Hospital, a mandate is required from a UN legislative body in order to take custody of any evidence.
“We’ve called for an international investigation. How that will take place? It’s unclear at this time. There are certain parts of this organisation that have the authority to do that,” Dujarric said.
“In the meantime, it’s important that all forensic evidence be well preserved,” he added.
