Bodies of 73 more Palestinians found in Nasser Hospital mass grave

The bodies of 73 Palestinians were found in a mass grave in the grounds of Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis yesterday, the Gaza Government Media Office said.

Some 42 victims had been identified while the rest remain unidentified, noting that the Israeli army deliberately hid them by burying them deep in sand and dumping waste on them.

“The fate of about 2,000 Palestinians who were inside the Nasser Medical Complex when the Israeli occupation army stormed it is still unknown, and it is not known whether they were arrested or killed and their bodies were hidden,” Government Media Office head, Salama Maarouf, said.

“For the fourth day, government crews continue to extract the bodies of victims from the mass grave in the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis,” said Maarouf, adding that on Monday the bodies of 73 victims had been recovered, bringing the total number of bodies recovered since Friday to 283.

Read: 190 bodies found in mass grave at hospital in Gaza’s Khan Yunis

“The bodies of women, children, elderly people and wounded people were also found in the mass grave, while some of them were handcuffed and stripped of their clothes, indicating that they had been executed in cold blood,” he said.

He considered that the heinous crime committed by the Israeli occupation army of storming the Nasser Medical Complex twice, and destroying some of its departments, demonstrates the extent of Israel’s barbarism and the immorality of its army, which destroys all necessities of life and means of survival inside the Gaza Strip.

Maarouf demanded the Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Court (ICC) launch an investigation into the Israeli massacres in the Nasser Medical Complex and the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City.

On Sunday, a spokesman for the Civil Defence, Major Mahmoud Basal, said some 2,000 Palestinians have been found to be missing following the Israeli occupation army’s withdrawal from several areas across Gaza. On 7 April, the Israeli army announced its withdrawal from Khan Yunis, four months after launching a ground offensive that led to the city being decimated.

For the 199th day in a row the Israeli occupation army continues its aggression against the Gaza Strip, which has led to the death of 34,049 Palestinians and injured 76,901 others. Approximately 85 per cent of the Strip’s population have been forcibly displaced, according to Palestinian and international organisations.