About 300 bodies found in mass grave at Gaza hospital----Civil Defense Gaza
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A mass grave with nearly 300 bodies has been uncovered at a hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Gaza Civil Defense workers said Monday, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area earlier this month.
Col. Yamen Abu Suleiman, Director of Civil Defense in Khan Younis told CNN Monday that “today, 73 bodies were recovered” in the courtyard at the Nasser Medical Complex which brought the “total number to 283.”
Suleiman alleged that some of the bodies had been found with hands and feet tied, “and there were signs of field executions. We do not know if they were buried alive or executed. Most of the bodies are decomposed.”
CNN is unable to verify Suleiman’s claims and cannot confirm the causes of death among the bodies being unearthed.
CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment following the discovery of the mass grave including whether bodies that had been buried at the hospital had been disinterred for DNA tests, and whether they had been reburied. CNN has sent several questions to the IDF on Sunday and Monday.
Previously, a Khan Younis Civil Defense spokesman and head of the search mission, Raed Saqr, told CNN that they are searching for the bodies of another 400 missing people after the Israeli military left on April 7.
A CNN stringer who visited the scene Sunday said people had buried the bodies of family members who had been killed in the grounds of the hospital in January as a temporary measure. When they returned after the Israeli withdrawal they found the bodies had been exhumed – apparently because the IDF was using DNA testing to determine whether any of the hostages held in Gaza were among the dead.
The bodies were then placed in at least one collective grave, the stringer said.
One man at the scene told CNN that he was yet to find the body of his 21-year old son, who was killed in January.
“I haven’t found him yet. We had buried him over there. But we can’t find him. And we wanted to make him a decent grave.”
