GAZA: The discovery of a mass grave outside Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza has been reported by media on Tuesday. Gaza’s Health Ministry and Civil Defence Forces uncovered nine bodies on Monday before halting excavation due to concerns about being targeted by Israeli drones overhead.
The bodies, which had not fully decomposed, indicated recent “executions” allegedly by invading Israeli troops. Some of the deceased appeared to be hospital patients, identified by medical bandages and catheters.
Witnesses reported Israeli troops killing individuals outside the hospital’s main entrance, known as building number 80. Israeli forces withdrew from Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after a two-week military invasion, leaving behind casualties and extensive destruction.
During the invasion, eyewitnesses reported the burning of buildings, including the kidney and maternity wards, destruction of medical equipment, and rendering the hospital completely out of service.
This follows previous raids on the hospital, including one in November, resulting in significant damage and destruction.
Meanwhile, World Health Organization teams visited the hospital to help identify the bodies that litter the ruins.
Motasem Salah, director of the Gaza Emergency Operations Centre, said the scenes on Monday at the sprawling medical centre were “unbearable”.
“The stench of death is everywhere”, he said, as a digger went through the rubble and rescue workers pulled decomposed bodies from the sand and ruins.
Salah said Gaza lacked the forensic experts needed to help identify the dead or determine what had happened to them. So they are relying on “the expertise of the WHO and OCHA (UN humanitarian office) delegation”, he said.
They are trying “to identify the decomposed bodies and the body parts that were crushed” from wallets and documents, Salah said.
