Gaza officials say 49 bodies found at Al-Shifa hospital

AFP | Palestinian Territories

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Gaza health workers uncovered yesterday at least 49 bodies at Al-Shifa hospital, a medical official and Hamas authorities said, the latest such 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 against Hamas, triggered by the Palestinian group’s unprecedented October 7 attack.

Israel accuses Palestinian of using hospitals as command centres and to hold hostages abducted on October 7.

Hamas denies the accusation. Motassem Salah, head of the emergency department at Al-Shifa, told journalists that “a third mass grave was found inside this hospital.”

The Hamas-run 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”, without offering further information concerning the bodies found yesterday.

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.

Last month, around 30 bodies were reported found buried in two other graves in the hospital courtyard.