Medics uncover 49 bodies from new mass grave at Gaza's al-Shifa hospital

A man tapes off the area as rescuers and medics search for dead bodies inside the damaged Al Shifa Hospital after Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital and the area around it following a two-week operation, in Gaza City April 8, 2024. (Photo/REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas)

Gaza health workers uncovered at least 49 bodies at al-Shifa hospital, a medical official and Gaza authorities said, the latest such discovery at the facility previously raided by Israeli forces.

Motassem Salah, head of the emergency department at al-Shifa, told journalists that "a third mass grave was found inside this hospital" on Wednesday.

The government media office said in a separate statement that at least 49 bodies had been recovered from the site on the premises of al-Shifa.

The statement accused Israel of "killings... inside and outside hospitals", without offering further information concerning the bodies found on Wednesday.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment.

The Israeli military has repeatedly targeted al-Shifa, the besieged Palestinian territory's largest hospital, and other medical facilities in its war after the Palestinian group Hamas' unprecedented October 7 attack.

Israel accuses Palestinian fighters of using hospitals as command centres and to hold hostages abducted on October 7. Hamas denies the accusation.

'Empty shell

AFP footage from al-Shifa Hospital showed at least a dozen bodies wrapped in black plastic body bags.

Standing in front of the ruins of the hospital, which was devastated by two weeks of fighting in March, Salah said several of the bodies had decomposed.

Last month, around 30 bodies were reported found buried in two other graves in the hospital courtyard.

After the Israeli assault in March, the World Health Organisation said al-Shifa had been reduced to ashes, leaving behind an "empty shell" with many bodies.

Israeli forces were battling Palestinian fighters at the hospital even as patients had been trapped there.

The military said that over the course of the fighting, 200 fighters were killed and hundreds more detained. Gaza's Civil Defence agency reported at least "300 martyrs" in the two-week battle.

On Wednesday, the media office said health workers continued to uncover bodies from the complex.

So far 520 bodies have been recovered from "seven mass graves" found at three different hospitals across Gaza in recent weeks, the media office said.

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Source: TRT