Apologies for the quick post*, but I thought the community would like to know that the Palestinian civil defense in Gaza says they’ve uncovered mass graves created by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Gaza’s two largest hospitals:
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations called Tuesday for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” of mass graves uncovered at two major hospitals in war-torn Gaza that were raided by Israeli troops.
[…] Earlier Tuesday, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said he was “horrified” by the destruction of the Shifa medical center in Gaza City and Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis as well as the reported discovery of mass graves in and around the facilities after the Israelis left.
[…] 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.
CNN put the number of corpses at 344 yesterday. The IDF denies creating the graves, claiming it only examined bodies discovered while searching for hostages, and that the bodies were buried by Palestinians:
"The claim that the IDF buried Palestinian bodies is baseless and unfounded," the IDF said in a statement. "During the IDF’s operation in the area of Nasser Hospital, in accordance to the effort to locate hostages and missing persons, corpses buried by Palestinians in the area of Nasser Hospital were examined."
"The examination was conducted in a careful manner and exclusively in places where intelligence indicated the possible presence of hostages," the IDF said. "Bodies examined, which did not belong to Israeli hostages, were returned to their place."
They claimed that all the corpses had been enemy combatants even though many were patients or medical staff:
The Israeli military has claimed that those whom they arrested and killed were militant fighters. But journalists, doctors and other witnesses say most of the victims were civilians or health care workers.
Journalists on the ground in Gaza like Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud said that the bodies being found in the mass graves include women, children, patients and medical staff. Some of the corpses found at Nasser were found naked with their hands bound, according to Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the U.N. human rights office.
According to Gaza journalist Bisan Owda, some of the bodies found in the mass graves at Nasser did not have organs, skin or heads. Footage from Owda shows a massive number of body bags surrounded by piles of dirt ― presumably from medics continuing to dig out corpses from the graves ― while family members try to identify their loved ones. She shows one of the corpses in a body bag who had a cast on their leg, signaling they were likely a patient at the hospital when they were killed.
The discovery of the mass graves may have hastened efforts at a cease-fire. The leaders of 18 countries have jointly called for Hamas to release its hostages in exchange for an “immediate” cease-fire:
The White House has issued a joint letter signed by the leaders of 18 countries calling for the release of hostages by Hamas, and offering “an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza” in return.
The letter reads
We call for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for over 200 days. They include our own citizens. The fate of the hostages and the civilian population in Gaza, who are protected under international law, is of international concern.
We emphasise that the deal on the table to release the hostages would bring an immediate and prolonged ceasefire in Gaza, that would facilitate a surge of additional necessary humanitarian assistance to be delivered throughout Gaza, and lead to the credible end of hostilities. Gazans would be able to return to their homes and their lands with preparations beforehand to ensure shelter and humanitarian provisions.
We strongly support the ongoing mediation efforts in order to bring our people home. We reiterate our call on Hamas to release the hostages, and let us end this crisis so that collectively we can focus our efforts on bringing peace and stability to the region.
As well as the US, the letter is signed by Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Thailand, and the UK.
We can only hope that Hamas considers the offer, since Israel is said to be preparing to send its troops into Rafah, which would further escalate the conflict.
* Apologies for the dearth of original content. I have age-related cognitive impairment and can’t express my thoughts and feelings well any more, so I’ll stick to reporting the facts.