(RepublicanNews.org) – The Palestinian Civil Defense held a press conference on Thursday, April 25th, in which they confirmed that workers had finished examining three mass graves near a hospital in Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza. The graves held 392 bodies, of which more than 200 have now been identified.
At least two of the three graves are known to have been created prior to Israel’s recent raids of the area around the Nasser hospital complex, where the Israeli Defense Force said that Hamas terrorists had embedded themselves, which Hamas denies. In response to claims that the IDF created the graves themselves, Israeli authorities have stated that their forces opened up the graves to confirm whether or not any Israeli hostages were among the dead.
Hamas is still known to be holding over 130 hostages kidnapped from Israel during their October 7th raids, and it is not clear how many of those are dead or alive. An Israeli spokesperson said that intelligence had led them to suspect that some hostages may have been buried at the Nasser complex and that the bodies of Gazans had been returned to the grave after examination.
An official from the Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency response team that operates under the banner of the Palestinian Authority, Mohammed Al Mighayyer, claimed that around twenty civilians had been buried alive at the site, although he gave no evidence or explanation for this claim. He also claimed that the mass grave was evidence of genocide and accused Israeli forces of attempting to cover up “evidence of its crimes” by changing the plastic wrapping that had been used to cover bodies, and demanded an international investigation into the site, something that the UN has expressed willingness to undertake.
The IDF said that its military action in the area involved a “targeted strike” against Hamas in February during which allegedly 200 Hamas terrorists were apprehended along with their ammunition supplies. The IDF also said that its forces found medicine that had been intended for Israeli hostages but had instead been misappropriated. Some of the hostages are known to have had medical conditions that required treatment or were seriously injured during their kidnapping.
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