Some victims appear to be hospital patients, as indicated by medical bandages and catheters found on them, while the retrieved bodies, which had not quite decayed, point to recent “executions” by Israeli troops, according to Al Jazeera.
Al Jazeera Arabic reported that a mass grave had been found at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza. The Civil Defense Forces and Gaza’s Health Ministry made the discovery.
Nine dead were discovered outside the hospital in western Gaza on Monday, according to the Qatar broadcaster. However, health officials decided to stop the excavation because they were afraid Israeli drones that were spotted flying overhead would strike the bodies.
The fact that the bodies had not entirely decayed indicates that the purported “executions” by the invading Israeli army took place not too long ago. Medical bandages and catheters found on several of the corpses suggested they were hospital patients.
Some of the fatalities, including an elderly man, a lady, and a young man in his 20s, were in fact patients, according to relatives who identified the bodies.
Multiple deaths have been recorded outside the hospital’s main entrance, building number 80, according to medical workers and doctors. The medical crew also claimed to have seen Israeli troops carry out the deaths.
After a two-week military invasion, during which it claimed to have fought the Palestinian organization Hamas inside what was once the most significant medical facility in the Palestinian territories, Israeli troops recently withdrew from Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
Witnesses claim that the Israeli force severely damaged the hospital and its surrounds, leaving several casualties in their wake.
Witnesses claimed that the Israeli soldiers also damaged the outpatient clinic building and set fire to the buildings housing the maternity and kidney units, mortuary refrigerators, and facilities for cancer and burn patients.
The army destroyed all of the medical equipment in the facility, including the operating rooms and intensive care units, and the hospital is currently entirely closed, according to medical sources in Palestine.
The hospital was previously raided on November 16 following a week-long siege during which Israel destroyed the power generator, medical equipment, courtyards, and portions of the hospital’s buildings.
WHO team at the location of the mass burial
Teams from the World Health Organization visited the hospital on Monday to assist in identifying the dead that are scattered around the rubble.
The circumstances at the expansive medical facility on Monday, according to Motasem Salah, head of the Gaza Emergency Operations Center, were “unbearable”.
He declared, “There is a stench of death everywhere” when rescuers extracted decaying corpses from the sand and debris and a digger combed through the debris.
According to Salah, Gaza lacked the forensic specialists required to identify the deceased or ascertain their circumstances. According to him, this means that they are depending on “the expertise of the WHO and OCHA (UN humanitarian office) delegation”.
Salah stated that they are attempting “to identify the decomposed bodies and the body parts that were crushed” by searching through wallets and paperwork.
According to Amjad Aliwa, the director of Al Shifa’s emergency department, relatives were also present “to ascertain the fate of their sons, whether they have been killed, are missing, or have been displaced to the south.”
“To identify their sons and ensure they receive a proper burial,” he stated was their goal.
“However, time is not on our side, and we lack the necessary equipment,” Aliwa stated to the AFP news agency. “We must complete the job before the bodies decompose.”
Salah stated in a different WHO video from the site provided with AFP that the psychological toll this “unwatchable” process is taking on the families is intolerable.
It is impossible to explain the sight of their children’s mutilated bodies and decaying carcasses. Words cannot express it.”
“Militarism in hospitals should never occur.”
A number of anxious family members strolled around what the World Health Organization described as “many shallow graves” outside the severely damaged emergency room as well as the administrative and surgical buildings.
Following its initial visit to the location on Friday, it released a statement stating that “many dead bodies were partially buried with their limbs visible.”
“Safeguarding dignity, even in death, is an indispensable act of humanity,” according to the World Health Organization.
According to Athanasios Gargavanis, the surgeon leading the trip for WHO on Monday, a “place where life was given is now a place that now reminds (us) only of death.” “Hospitals should never be militarised.”
Images captured on Monday by AFP in Al Shifa showed the remains of multiple victims being removed from one of the hospital’s courtyards and placed inside body bags.
The news was bad for Ghassan Riyadh Kanita, the son of one of the missing, whose 83-year-old father Riyadh had sought safety in the hospital.
“My nephew called us and he told me that they found the body at the entrance of Al Shifa,” stated the man. “We came and they told us that they found the body.”
SOURCE: TRTWORLD
