Al Jazeera reports that a new mass grave was discovered this week in the Al-Shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip.
The grave was discovered when a few hospital staff members told relief and rescue workers that, due to Israel’s constant bombardment, it had become nearly difficult to arrange a traditional burial for an unknown number of victims that had been abandoned on hospital property over the previous few months.
An employee of the hospital was described by the channel’s correspondent as expressing confidence in the discovery of another mass grave at Beit Lahiya, a village close to Gaza City that was heavily bombed by Israel shortly after the crisis began on October 7.
Palestinian families have been going to the hospital, the channel’s correspondent said, to see if their loved ones’ remains are buried there. Included among them was Walid Radwa Ftima. He claimed that a distinguishing mark on his mother’s leg helped him recognize her body.
Israel launched its bombardment on Gaza in response to the raid carried out by Hamas on October 7 inside the Jewish state, which resulted in 1,200 confirmed deaths and 253 captured.
More than 33,000 Palestinians have died as a result of the ensuing bombing, which has also forced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to flee and created a serious humanitarian crisis.
Growing international criticism of Israel’s ceaseless shelling of Gaza, which the UN and relief organizations claim has driven the region’s northern region to the verge of starvation, has been directed on Israel. On Wednesday, however, Netanyahu refuted any allegations of starvation, asserting that Israel is going “above and beyond” what is required “on the humanitarian issue.”
