Gaza authorities find over 100 more bodies in mass grave at hospital

Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip on April 25 increased the tally of bodies discovered in a mass grave on the grounds of a hospital to 392 from 283, amid conflicting accounts between Israel and the Gaza authorities over how and when some of the bodies were buried.

"This is the biggest mass grave since the beginning of the war," Mr Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza's Civil Defence, a search and rescue department within the Hamas-controlled territory, said on April 25 before calling for an international investigation.

A New York Times analysis of social media videos and satellite imagery found that Palestinians had dug at least two of the three burial sites weeks before Israeli troops raided the complex.

The Gaza authorities say that mass graves had been dug on the hospital grounds before an Israeli raid there in February but accuse Israel of later opening the site to add bodies.

It was not clear how those who were buried at the Nasser medical complex in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis had died or exactly when.

While the Times could not determine the cause of death for individual people, the initial burials took place in January and February amid a weeks-long Israeli offensive in the city.

Israel on April 25 denied accusations that it was responsible for digging the graves at the complex but previously said it had opened them in the search for the bodies of military hostages abducted to Gaza.

"Misinformation is circulating regarding a mass grave that was discovered at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis," said Major Nadav Shoshani, an Israeli spokesman, in a statement. "The grave in question was dug - by Gazans a few months ago. This fact is corroborated by social media documentation.

Any attempt to blame Israel for burying civilians in mass graves is categorically false and a mere example of a disinformation campaign aimed at delegitimising Israel." In the chaos of the six-month war, it has become common for Palestinians to bury the dead on hospital grounds, backyards and elsewhere, often hurriedly and without ceremony. But the rising tally of bodies pointed both to the human toll of the war and how hospitals have become flashpoints.