Palestinian territories: Gaza health workers discovered at least 49 bodies at al-Shifa hospital on Wednesday, a medical official and Hamas officials said, the latest such discovery at a facility previously raided by Israeli forces. .
Israeli forces have repeatedly targeted al-Shifa hospital, the Palestinian territory’s largest hospital, and other medical facilities in the war against Hamas, which began on October 7 due to the Palestinian group’s unprecedented attack.
Israel has accused Palestinian activists of using hospitals as command centers and holding hostages kidnapped on October 7. Hamas has denied the accusation.
“A third mass grave has been found inside this hospital,” Motassem Salah, head of the emergency department in al-Shifa, told reporters.
The Hamas-run state media office said in a separate statement that at least 49 bodies had been recovered from the site in the al-Shifa compound.
The statement accused Israel of “killings…inside and outside hospitals,” without giving further details regarding the bodies found on Wednesday.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
AFP footage from al-Shifa hospital shows at least a dozen bodies wrapped in black plastic body bags.
Standing in front of the ruins of the hospital, which was destroyed by two weeks of fighting in March, Salah said many of the bodies had decomposed.
Last month, about 30 bodies were reported buried in two other graves in the hospital courtyard.
Following the Israeli attack in March, the World Health Organization said al-Shifa had been reduced to ashes, leaving behind an “empty shell” with several bodies.
Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants at the hospital, while patients were trapped there.
The army said 200 activists were killed and hundreds detained during the fighting. Gaza’s Civil Defense Agency reported at least “300 martyrs” in the two-week fighting.
On Wednesday, the media office said health workers continued to remove bodies from the compound.
The media office said 520 bodies had so far been recovered from “seven mass graves” found in three different hospitals in Gaza in recent weeks.
The attack on southern Israel on October 7 resulted in the outbreak of war, killing more than 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The operatives abducted around 250 people during the attack. Israel estimates that 128 of them remain in Gaza, including 36 who officials say are dead.
Israel’s counterattacks have killed 34,844 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
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2024-05-09 10:21:36