210 bodies found in southern Gaza hospital

AP , Monday 22 Apr 2024

The Palestinian civil defense in the Gaza Strip said Monday it had uncovered 210 bodies from a temporary burial ground inside the main hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.

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Palestinian health workers unearth a body buried by Israeli forces in Nasser hospital compound in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on April 21, 2024. AFP

 

The burial area in the Nasser hospital was built when Israeli forces were besieging the facility last month. At the time, people were not able to bury the dead in a cemetery and dug graves in the hospital yard, the group said.

In a statement, the department said a total of 210 bodies have been recovered from the hospital yard since Friday.

The civil defense said some of the bodies were of people killed during the hospital siege. Others were killed when Israeli forces raided the hospital, also last month.

After the military withdrew from Khan Younis earlier this month, residents have been returning to the site in search of the bodies of their loved ones with the aim of burying them in permanent graves elsewhere.

Civil defense workers began recovering bodies from the cemetery more than a week after Israel’s military withdrew its forces from the city. The International Committee of the Red Cross has given 1,500 body bags and protective gear to the civil defense to help dig up the cemetery and move the bodies, it said.

Israel sent troops into Khan Younis in December, part of its blistering ground offensiveon Gaza.

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