The United Nations has called for a clear, transparent, and credible investigation into the mass graves uncovered at two major hospitals in Gaza that were raided by Israeli troops during the recent conflict.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric emphasized the need for credible investigators to have access to the sites and for more journalists to be able to work safely in Gaza to report on the facts.
UN human rights chief Volker Türk expressed horror at the destruction of the Shifa medical center in Gaza City and Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, as well as the reported discovery of mass graves in and around the facilities after the Israelis left.
Türk called for independent and transparent investigations into the deaths, emphasizing the importance of international investigators given the prevailing climate of impunity.
US State Department spokesman Vedant Patel called the reports of mass graves at the hospitals “incredibly troubling” and said US officials have asked the Israeli government for information.
The Israeli military stated that its forces exhumed bodies that Palestinians had buried earlier as part of its search for the remains of hostages captured by Hamas during its Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.
The military said the bodies were examined respectfully and those not belonging to Israeli hostages were returned to their place.
The Israeli military claims that it killed or detained hundreds of terrorists who had taken shelter inside the two hospital complexes, claims that could not be independently verified.
Hamas has been designated a terrorist organization by the US, Canada, and EU.
The Palestinian civil defense in the Gaza Strip said Monday that it had uncovered 283 bodies from a temporary burial ground inside the main hospital in Khan Younis that was built when Israeli forces were besieging the facility last month.
At the time, people were not able to bury the dead in a cemetery and dug graves in the hospital yard, the group said.
The civil defense said some of the bodies were of people killed during the hospital siege, while others were killed when Israeli forces raided the hospital.
Palestinian health officials say the hospital raids have destroyed Gaza’s health sector as it tries to cope with the mounting toll from over six months of war.
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, said after visiting Israel and the West Bank in December that a probe by the court into possible crimes by Hamas fighters and Israeli forces “is a priority for my office.”
The discovery of the graves “is another reason why we need a cease-fire, why we need to see an end to this conflict, why we need to see greater access for humanitarians, for humanitarian goods, greater protection for hospitals” and for the release of Israeli hostages, Dujarric said Monday.
In the Hamas attack that launched the war, terrorists killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 hostages.
Israel says Hamas is still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
In response, Israel’s air and ground offensive in Gaza, aimed at eliminating Hamas, has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, around two-thirds of them children and women. It has devastated Gaza’s two largest cities, created a humanitarian crisis, and led around 80% of the territory’s population to flee to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave.
