Mass graves found in two hospitals in the Gaza Strip containing 392 bodies, including those of women, children and the elderly, showed signs of torture and executions, officials in the enclave have said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the sixth consecutive day of digging up bodies in southern Gaza, Palestinian Civil Defence officials on Thursday revealed horrifying new details about the mass graves around the Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dozens of bodies were found with bound hands while others still had medical tubes attached to them, indicating they may have been buried alive, said civil defence member Mohammed Mughier. \u201cWe need forensic examination for approximately 20 bodies for people who we think were buried alive,\u201d Mughier said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yamen Abu Sulaiman, the head of the civil defence department in southern Khan Younis where Nasser Hospital is located, said three separate mass graves were found at the facility \u2013 one behind the morgue, one in front of the morgue, and one near the dialysis building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Only 65 bodies have been identified by relatives of 392 recovered due to decomposition, mutilation and torture, or other difficulties, he said, adding that bodies were \u201cstacked together\u201d and showed indications of field executions having taken place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At a news conference in southern Rafah on Thursday, Abu Sulaiman called on the international community to exert pressure to \u201cput an immediate end to this aggression against our people\u201d, as well as for humanitarian organisations and international media to be let into Gaza to \u201cexamine these crimes\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mughier, who provided photographic and video evidence of the remains of children, said \u201cwhy do we have children in mass graves?\u201d — adding that the evidence shows Israeli soldiers committed \u201ccrimes against humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, called for an \u201cindependent, effective and transparent investigations\u201d into the deaths. \u201cHospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law, and the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are hors de combat is a war crime,\u201d Turk said this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Israeli army spokesman Major Nadav Shoshani claimed the graves at Nasser Hospital were \u201cdug by Gazans a few months ago.\u201d The Israeli military has also confirmed digging up bodies from graves, but in a stated effort to look for captives still held in the enclave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera\u2019s Heidi Zhou-Castro pointed out that Sullivan did not call for an \u201cindependent\u201d investigation, meaning that the United States is content with Israel looking into the matter. \u201cThat is the major difference between the US\u2019s call for an investigation into the mass graves compared to that of other world leaders and of the UN High Commissioner [for human rights],\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zhou-Castro said accountability stays even further out of reach. \u201cSo as far as condemnation, sure, there is more of that happening now in the United States. As far as action, there is only action in support of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a new level of criminality that I thought the Israelis were too smart to get involved with,\u201d said Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera\u2019s senior political analyst. \u201cThe ugliness and the tragedy of the scenes and the mindset behind it \u2013 done by the Israelis against the hospital, against the refugee camp \u2013 is something that we have never seen before and that is something that is going to stay with us for a while,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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