UPDATE - 190 bodies found in mass grave at hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis

UPDATES WITH HAMAS STATEMENT

By Anadolu staff

ISTANBUL (AA) – Palestinians exhumed at least 190 bodies from a mass grave at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip, the state news agency Wafa reported on Sunday.

The bodies were found following Israeli troop withdrawal from the city on April 7 after a military offensive there, Wafa said.

It said women and children made up the majority of the victims in the mass grave.

According to the broadcaster, around 500 people have been reported missing following the Israeli offensive on Khan Younis.

Hamas said the new mass grave in Khan Younis shows the extent of the Israeli atrocities in the Gaza Strip.

“This raises questions about the fate of thousands of Palestinians who are still missing” in Gaza, the group said in a statement.

“The horrific crimes committed by this criminal army and the mass killings of defenseless civilians would not have continued without the unlimited political and military support by the administration of US President Joe Biden,” it added.

There was no comment from the Israeli military on the report.

Israel has launched a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023 following a Hamas attack that killed nearly 1,200 people.

Nearly 34,100 people have since been killed and 77,000 others injured amid mass destructions and severe shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war 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.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi