The bodies of 80 Palestinians have been uncovered in three mass graves at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where “hard evidence” shows some of the victims were “executed” at point-blank range during the Israeli military’s horrific massacre of people and medical staff at the complex in March.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said Saturday that three mass graves were discovered inside a section of the al-Shifa Hospital complex.
It said there is “hard evidence” that some of the victims were “executed” at point-blank range, with bullet wounds found in their heads and chests.
The ministry said among those killed in the hospital were four medical staff.
The latest discovery brought the total number of medical staff killed during the regime’s war on the territory to 492.
Israeli forces killed hundreds of Palestinians and left their bodies to decompose during their two-week siege of the medical complex that started on March 18.
The total number of bodies that have so far been discovered in such graves in different sites throughout Gaza has reached 520, according to the Health Ministry.
The ministry further said that the regime’s forces have detained 42 medical staff from the hospital, bringing the total number of detained health officials to 310.
It said that the detained medical officials are held in “dire conditions” that threaten their lives.
The ministry called on Tel Aviv to “immediately release all the medical staff…and to act swiftly to salvage what is left of our medical facility.”
During the regime's carnage in al-Shifa, the Israeli military admitted that it had killed 90 Palestinians and kidnapped 160 others in two days of a raid into the hospital.
At the time, Gaza’s media office reported that more than 100 aid workers were killed and dozens wounded during eight attacks by the regime’s forces on the medical facility.
Al-Shifa, Gaza’s largest hospital, had sheltered thousands of Palestinians who fled Israel’s hostilities in northern parts of the territory.
The regime’s military forces imposed a two-week siege on the hospital and started a raid, which they claimed only targeted Hamas fighters, who were using the complex as a "command center."
The Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, however, slammed the regime’s claims. It said those who were killed by Israel in the raid on the hospital were patients, medical workers and displaced civilians.
Euro-Med Monitor had estimated that over 1,500 Palestinians were killed, injured, or reported missing as a result of the regime’s massacre at al-Shifa, with women and children making up half of the casualties.
The hospital, which was severely damaged during the raid, now lies in ruins.