Two weeks after Israeli forces left the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, Palestinian civil defense workers have discovered a mass grave in the area containing at least 180 bodies.
After months of Israeli bombing and protracted fighting, much of the town lies in ruins and it is unclear how many have died.
– In the hospital courtyard, civil defence members and paramedics have retrieved 180 bodies buried in this mass grave by the Israeli military. The bodies include elderly women, children and young men, according to Qatar-based Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud, who was there on Sunday.
“Our teams continue their search and retrieval operations for the remaining martyrs in the coming days as there are still a significant number of them”, the Palestinian emergency services said in a statement.
Israeli troops only withdrew from the largely destroyed city on April 7.
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34,000 killed
Several mass graves have been discovered in Gaza in the past, and another mass grave was discovered early last week at the al-Shifa hospital, which was recently subjected to a two-week Israeli siege.
So far, more than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to the territory’s authorities, and several of Gaza’s main cities are in ruins. The vast majority of those killed are women and children, but the exact death toll is difficult to confirm – not least because many are still missing and many bodies are believed to be buried under rubble or in areas where medical personnel cannot reach.
On Sunday, Israeli attacks continued, including a bombing of the town of Rafah that killed 18 children, including a three-year-old and a pregnant woman. However, doctors managed to save the child, according to the hospital.
– Entire families are being directly targeted inside the residential homes they shelter in, Mahmoud said.
Rafah is now home to more than half of Gaza’s population – a town previously described by Israeli officials as a “safe zone”, but which Israel is expected to invade soon, claiming that Hamas is there and using the town to attack Israeli targets.
