UPDATE 2 – Scores of bodies found in 2 mass graves at hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis

UPDATES WITH DETAILS, REVISES HEADLINE, LEDE, ADDS CHANGES

By Hosni Nadim

ISTANBUL (AA) – Palestinians exhumed scores of bodies from two mass graves at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis city in the southern Gaza Strip, according to a local official on Sunday.

“Some 150 bodies have been found in the two graves,” Ismail Al-Thawabteh, the director-general of Gaza’s government media office, told Anadolu.

He said around 700 people are still unaccounted for since the Israeli withdrawal from Khan Younis on April 7 following a 4-month ground offensive.

“We believe that there are hundreds of martyrs still missing after they were executed and buried by the Israeli occupation forces in mass graves,” he added.

The Palestinian official said many bodies in the mass graves were found decomposed.

“This is a real crime and massacre committed by the occupation against the displaced, civilians, and children,” he said. “It is a crime of revenge and a brutal war by the Israeli occupation."

The state news agency Wafa earlier said that at least 190 bodies had been found in a mass grave at the hospital with women and children making up the majority of the victims.

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 and Rania Abu Shamala