The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, expressed his shock at the destruction of the Nasser and Al Shifa hospitals in Gaza and the reports of mass graves with hundreds of corpses.
Palestinian authorities have spoken of finding mass graves outside Gaza hospitals of dozens of bodies in Khan Younis this week, after Israeli troops withdrew. There were also reports of bodies being found in Al Shifa after an operation by Israeli special forces.
“We feel the need to raise the alarm because apparently many bodies have been discovered,” said Ravina Samdasani, a spokeswoman for the high commissioner for human rights.
“Some of them had their hands tied, which of course indicates serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and these need to be investigated further.”
She added that the United Nations human rights office trying to verify the reports by Palestinian officials that 283 bodies were found in Nasser and 30 in Al Shifa.
According to those reports, the bodies were buried under piles of garbage and included women and older people. Turk, addressing a United Nations briefing through his spokeswoman, Samsadani, also denounced Israeli strikes on Gaza in recent days, which he said have claimed the lives of mostly women and children.
He also repeated his warning against a full-scale invasion of Rafah, saying it could lead to “further crimes of atrocity”.
Tags: War Israel Shocking reports mass graves Gaza hospitals
