A mass grave with nearly 300 bodies has been uncovered at the Nasser hospital in southern Gaza by Gaza Civil Defense workers, following the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the area on April 7.
“We have recovered 283 bodies of martyrs from the mass grave in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex since the withdrawal of the Israeli army,” Colonel Yamen Abu Suleiman, Director of Civil Defense in Khan Younis, told CNN Monday.
The city of Khan Younis has been left in ruins after a months-long Israeli offensive.
Suleiman claimed that some of the bodies had been found with hands and feet tied.
“There were signs of field executions. We do not know if they were buried alive or executed. Most of the bodies are decomposed,” he said.
CNN is unable to verify Suleiman’s claims and cannot confirm the causes of death among the bodies being unearthed. CNN has put a number of questions to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) about the discovery of the mass grave.
One man at the scene told CNN that he has 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.”
Palestinian health workers recover buried bodies from a mass grave at the Nasser Medical Hospital compound in Khan Younis, Gaza, on April 21. Ahmad Salem/Bloomberg/Getty Images
