Gaza health workers report another mass grave at Al-Shifa hospital destroyed by Israel
Gaza City, Gaza - Gaza health workers uncovered Wednesday at least 49 bodies at Al-Shifa hospital, a medical official said, the latest grisly discovery at the facility previously raided by Israeli forces.
The Israeli military has repeatedly targeted Al-Shifa, the Palestinian territory's largest hospital, and other medical facilities in its war on Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack.
Motassem Salah, head of the emergency department at Al-Shifa, told journalists that "a third mass grave was found inside this hospital."
The Gaza government media office said in a separate statement that at least 49 bodies had been recovered from the site on the premises of Al-Shifa.
The statement accused Israel of "killings... inside and outside hospitals." The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
AFP footage from Al-Shifa hospital showed at least a dozen bodies wrapped in black plastic body bags.
Standing in front of the ruins of the hospital, which was devastated by two weeks of fighting in March, Salah said several of the bodies had decomposed.
Israel accused of committing war crimes in hospital attacks
Last month, around 30 bodies were found buried in two other graves in the hospital courtyard.
After the Israeli assault in March, the World Health Organization said Al-Shifa had been reduced to ashes, leaving behind an "empty shell" with many bodies.
Israel claimed it had killed 200 Palestinian militants and detained hundreds more, while Gaza's Civil Defence agency reported at least "300 martyrs" in the two-week battle.
On Wednesday, the media office said health workers continued to uncover remains from the complex. So far, 520 bodies have been recovered from "seven mass graves" found at three different hospitals across Gaza in recent weeks, the media office said.
No medical facility in the strip is fully functional after more than seven months of war, during which Israel has killed close to 35,000 Palestinians.
The deliberate targeting of hospitals is generally considered a war crime.
Cover photo: AFP