Bodies of 50 Palestinians killed by Israeli army recovered in southern Gaza

By Mohamed Majed and Esat Firat

GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) – The Palestinian Civil Defense Administration in the Gaza Strip said late Saturday that the bodies of 50 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army were recovered from a mass grave in the southern Khan Younis province.

"Today, our teams in the Khan Younis Governorate uncovered the bodies of 50 martyrs from different age groups who were collected by the occupation forces and buried collectively at Nasser Hospital,” it said in a statement.

The statement underlined that there are still bodies in mass graves and under the rubble, adding that civil defense teams continue search and recovery efforts.

The Israeli army announced its withdrawal from Khan Younis on April 7 after four months of a ground operation aimed at retrieving Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian resistance group, Hamas, but it exited the city without achieving its objectives.

The Israeli operation left extensive destruction to roads, homes and infrastructure.

Palestinians in Khan Younis had evacuated during the ground operation to areas near Rafah and central areas in Deir al-Balah, where they sought shelter in tents and displacement centers such as schools and hospitals.

Flouting the International Court of Justice’s provisional ruling, Israel continues its onslaught on Gaza where at least 34,049 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 76,901 injured since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.

The Israeli onslaught has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Hostilities have continued unabated, however, and aid deliveries remain woefully insufficient to address the humanitarian catastrophe.​​​​​​​

*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz.