Palestinian civil defense teams have unearthed a mass grave at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis two weeks after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the southern Gaza city. Photo: The Cradle/File photo.
Gaza’s Government Media Office said that some of the bodies found in Khan Yunis’ Nasser Medical Complex had their organs stolen
Over 200 bodies were discovered in mass graves in Gaza’s southern city of Khan Yunis, authorities in the strip announced on 21 April.
AL-JAZEERA: the number of bodies recovered from the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip has risen to 210.
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Two mass graves were discovered at Khan Yunis’ Nasser Medical Complex, Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Sunday. “About 700 bodies are expected to be found,” it added.
“We found in the Nasser Complex corpses without heads and bodies without skins, and some of them had their organs stolen,” the media office went on to say. “The occupation executed dozens of displaced, wounded, sick, and medical staff” during its operations in Khan Yunis and Nasser Medical Complex.
Among the bodies found were those of children and elderly. Rescue teams reported seeing bodies wrapped in plastic bags with Hebrew writing on them. Many of the bodies had shown that their hands were tied behind their backs, indicating that they were executed, according to the media office.
Gaza’s Civil Defense said, “More than 150 martyrs [have been recovered], and about 500 people are missing after the massacres in Khan Yunis following the occupier’s withdrawal. It is unknown whether the missing people are detained or buried underground.”
The civil defense said that the Israeli army uses forced disappearance as a systematic policy against the people of Gaza.
It said that overall, 2,000 Palestinians are missing across the strip.
“Some of the bodies found have evaporated and turned to ash. International institutions must identify the type of weapons used [by Israel].”
The Israeli army withdrew a large bulk of its forces from the Gaza Strip in early April. Following the withdrawal, families returning to Khan Yunis witnessed scores of bodies, many trapped under rubble.
Israeli Forces Retreat From Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital After Weeks of Siege
Hundreds of bodies have also recently been recovered in the northern Gaza Strip, particularly in and around Al-Shifa Hospital, where Israeli troops launched a violent and destructive military operation that lasted from 18 March until 1 April.
“The bodies of 409 martyrs – some of them decomposed – have so far been recovered by civil defense teams from the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and its surroundings in Gaza City,” Palestinian news agency WAFA reported on 9 April, citing the civil defense.
More bodies were found at Al-Shifa Hospital last week, as well as another mass grave in the northern city of Beit Lahiya.
Mass graves have also been discovered in Khan Yunis’ Kamal Adwan Hospital in recent months.
The continuous unearthing of more and more bodies has resulted in concerns that Israel is going to great lengths to conceal the number of killings and executions it has committed in Gaza over the past several months.
