The White House has requested an explanation from Israeli authorities after Hamas officials in Gaza declared they had found a mass grave at a hospital that had recently been the target of an IDF raid. According to the Hamas-run Civil Defense agency, health workers discovered nearly 340 bodies of people who were allegedly killed and buried by Israeli forces at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. However, there is evidence to suggest that this assertion is untrue, as the bodies were actually buried in that location by Palestinians during the conflict between Israeli forces and terrorist operatives in the area.
“We want answers,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters. “We want to see this thoroughly and transparently investigated.” A spokesman for the US State Department also indicated that Washington was continuing to press Israel for more information.
The alleged finding by Hamas officials sparked a call from the United Nations for an independent investigation into the incident, which was backed by the European Union. “Misinformation is circulating regarding a mass grave that was discovered at Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis. The grave in question was dug — by Gazans — a few months ago,” Israeli army spokesman Major Nadav Shoshani wrote on Twitter. “This fact is corroborated by social media documentation uploaded by Gazans at the time of the burial, as seen in the video below.”
“Any attempt to blame Israel for burying civilians in mass graves is categorically false and a mere example of a disinformation campaign aimed at delegitimizing Israel,” Shoshani added.
The Israel Defense Forces had previously rejected Hamas’s claim as “baseless,” stating that troops searching for Israeli hostages had examined bodies that had been buried earlier by Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and had returned the bodies to where they were buried after they were examined.
It has been documented that Palestinians buried their dead at the hospital grounds both before and while Israeli troops operated in the area. Experts have geo-located the location of that burial site to be the same as where Hamas officials claimed to have found the new mass grave.
The IDF typically does not handle the bodies of dead Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. According to the IDF’s response, during its operation in the area of Nasser Hospital in recent months, troops examined corpses that had been buried by Palestinians on the medical center’s grounds, “as part of an effort to locate hostages.” The military asserted that it operated in a “targeted manner,” only where it had intelligence that Israeli hostages may have been buried.
“The examinations were carried out in an orderly manner while maintaining the dignity of the deceased and in a respectful manner,” the IDF said, adding that the bodies were “returned to their place in an orderly and proper manner.” No bodies of hostages were located.
In late February, the IDF carried out a raid against Hamas in the area of Nasser Hospital, claiming to have captured approximately 200 terror operatives who were hiding at the medical center. During the war, the military has operated in hospitals on several occasions, providing evidence of their repeated use by Gaza terror organizations to stage operations and detain hostages. Although hospitals are considered protected sites in war under international law, they lose their protected status if used for military purposes.
