CNN
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Gaza authorities ended the search for mass graves at a hospital in the southern part of the Strip and said they had found a total of 392 bodies, including some still wearing surgical gowns.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, an official from the Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza said workers had identified 165 bodies at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis after the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area earlier this month.
They are still examining the remaining 227 bodies to establish their identities, Mohammed Al Mighayer told a news conference in Rafah. “We discovered three mass graves, the first in front of the morgue, the second behind the morgue and the third north of the dialysis building,” he added.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said any suggestion that they buried Palestinian bodies in mass graves is false and that a grave in the Nasser compound was dug by Palestinians in Gaza several months ago.
The Gaza Civil Defense admitted that around 100 bodies were buried in graves at Nasser Hospital before the IS operation there.
CNN’s Stringer, who visited the scene Sunday, spoke with people who said they buried the bodies of family members who were killed on the hospital grounds as a temporary measure in January. When they returned after the Israeli army withdrew on April 7, they found that the bodies had been dug up and then placed in at least one mass grave, not all in the original places where they were buried, the stringer said.
The Palestinian Civil Defense also showed graphic images on a television screen at the press conference. CNN has reviewed the photos, which appear to show several nearly unrecognizable bodies at the compound. The images also include the bodies of decomposing children.
A CNN reporter who visited the scene Sunday and Monday saw several decomposed bodies in surgical gowns. Photos seen by CNN show several bodies still wearing hospital bracelets.
CNN footage also showed several bodies of other children decomposing in the compound.
Al Mihaier said that the Civil Defense “witnessed the presence of children’s bodies in the mass graves at the Nasser Medical Complex, which proves crimes of genocide.” Although the group says it is still examining the bodies, it suspects at least 20 civilians were buried alive in the compound, but has not explained how it knows this or offered evidence as it continues to investigate.
Al Mighayer also claimed that there were cases of executions of patients who were being treated at the hospital. He said several bodies were found with gunshot wounds on their heads and injuries on their bodies.
CNN cannot verify these claims and cannot confirm the causes of death of those whose bodies are being exhumed and it is not known who is responsible for their deaths.
CNN interviewed a father on camera the moment he recognized his 15-year-old son’s decomposed body by the clothes he was wearing.
The man stared at his son’s lifeless body, pointing at him and said, “That’s my son, I can tell by his blouse.” The footage shows him kneeling down and holding his son’s head, looking at it from behind and confirming once again that it is his son. “Oh my God, he’s dead. He’s dead,” he said as he wiped away his tears.
Al Mighayer said at the press conference that the Palestinian Civil Defense of Gaza in Gaza “found traces of torture on [some] bodies.” CNN could not independently verify these claims.
Al Mighayer added that Israeli forces buried several bodies in plastic bags “at a depth of three meters, which caused them to decompose quickly.” “The occupation deliberately hid evidence of its crimes in the Nasser compound by changing the plastic shutters more than once,” he claimed. Video recorded by CNN shows bodies wrapped in three different colors of shrouds: white, black and blue.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) did not respond to specific questions about the allegations regarding the graves.
In response to a question from CNN about the mass graves, the IDF shared a link to an X post by its international spokesman, Nadav Shoshani, who commented on a video of Palestinians digging up a mass grave at the compound. Shoshani wrote in the post: “Misinformation is being spread about a mass grave that was discovered at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The grave in question was dug up – by Gazans – several months ago. This fact is confirmed by social media documentation uploaded by Gazans during the funeral, as seen in the video below.
He added: “Any attempt to blame Israel for burying civilians in mass graves is categorically false and simply an example of a disinformation campaign aimed at delegitimizing Israel.”
The Israel Defense Forces said they had taken dozens of bodies out of Gaza for DNA testing in Israel before returning the remains in containers.
The Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza called on the UN to form an international committee to investigate the mass graves in the Nasser compound.
Asked about the mass graves at Nasser Hospital at a UN briefing in New York on Thursday, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the UN secretary-general, said the organization had called for an international investigation, but said how that would be done “is not clear at the moment”.
“Investigators, wherever they come from, will have to have access to Gaza, which will require permission from a number of countries, including Israel,” he added.
Amnesty International also called for an investigation into the mass graves at Nasser Hospital and another hospital in Gaza, the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, saying there was an “urgent need to grant access to independent human rights investigators”.
“Mass grave sites are potential crime scenes, offering vital and time-sensitive forensic evidence; they must be protected until professional forensic experts with the necessary skills and resources can safely carry out adequate exhumations and accurate identification of the remains,” it added.
When reached for comment, the IDF also referred CNN to a previous statement regarding claims that Israeli troops buried dozens of Palestinians in a mass grave on hospital grounds, saying they were “baseless and baseless.”
It added: “During the IDF operation in the Nasser Hospital area, in line with efforts to locate hostages and missing persons, corpses buried by Palestinians in the Nasser Hospital area were examined. The screening was conducted in a careful manner and exclusively in locations where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages.
The IDF continued: “In late February, IDF forces conducted a precise and targeted operation against the terrorist organization Hamas in the area of Nasser Hospital. During the operation, about 200 terrorists were detained in the hospital, undelivered and unused medicines intended for Israeli hostages were found, and a lot of ammunition was confiscated. The activity was carried out purposefully and without harming the hospital, patients and medical staff.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
