According to the Palestinian Civil Defense, there are at least 300 bodies around the Nasser hospital, and it is feared that hundreds more are buried underground. Residents have flocked to the graves to discover if they can find their missing relatives here.
It is still unclear what happened in the hospitals. The United Nations is calling for an independent investigation, which should be conducted by international experts “given the current climate of impunity.” However, research teams cannot enter the area at the moment, resulting in the loss of a lot of valuable information.
About the author
Erik Verwiel works in the data editorial office of de Volkskrant. He specializes in research into public sources and social media, and documents obtained through the Open Government Act.
Both hospitals have been under fire from the Israeli army for weeks because Hamas fighters would use these places as a base or hide there. The mass graves were found after the Israeli army withdrew.
Israel: graves were already there
According to Israel, the mass graves were already there when they entered the hospital grounds in Khan Younis. Against the newspaper The Times of Israel the army says it has exhumed bodies to check whether any deceased hostages were among them. “These investigations were conducted in an orderly manner, while preserving the dignity of the deceased,” the military statement read. The bodies were then reburied.
The army does not want to say how many bodies it has exhumed and reburied, how these people died and whether any deceased hostages have actually been found.
Impossible to take people to cemetery
According to the Palestinian Civil Defense, the gunshot wounds indicate that some of the deceased were executed by Israel, and that others, possibly including patients and hospital staff, fell victim to Israeli violence. During the siege it was impossible to take people to a cemetery, so they were buried in the courtyard of the hospital itself.
More often during this war, chaos makes it impossible for civilians to reach a cemetery and people are buried in mass graves or hastily buried in yards and backyards.
Major concerns
There are major concerns that the withdrawal of the Israeli army from Khan Younis is a prelude to an Israeli invasion of Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where more than a million Palestinians have fled. Despite warnings from the United Nations and Western allies, Israel appears to be going ahead with plans for the attack. Israel views Rafah as Hamas’s last stronghold in the Gaza Strip, and believes the leadership is hiding there in tunnels underground.
Satellite images from last Tuesday show that the Israeli army has built a tent camp in Khan Younis, which, according to Israeli media, is intended to accommodate Palestinians from Rafah. The army has made all necessary preparations for a ground offensive and the operation can start as soon as the government gives the green light, a senior official who asked not to be named told Reuters news agency on Wednesday. A spokesman for Prime Minister Netanyahu told Reuters that a ground offensive will certainly take place, but did not indicate when.
