Relatives tell of loved ones found in mass graves

Corpses wrapped in white shrouds are spread across sand ground — Health workers unearth bodies buried by Israeli forces after a two-week siege of the Nasser medical compound in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on 21 April.
Omar Ashtawy APA images

On 21 April, Kholoud Nasser, 36, went to the Nasser Medical Complex in the southern Gaza Strip to search for the body of her husband, Abdulhamid.

She had heard news that hundreds of bodies had been found in a mass grave within the complex after the Israeli military had retreated from the area on 7 April, having besieged the compound for weeks.

Abdulhamid had been a patient there and for five consecutive days Khuloud searched the corpses, a grizzly undertaking.

On the fifth day, she finally located his decomposing body.

“His body was completely decomposed and hard to identify,” Khuloud told The Electronic Intifada. “It seemed he had been buried naked, and I was only able to recognize him by the ring he wore on his left hand, which had my name, his name and our wedding date engraved on it.”

The mass grave – or graves, a total of three mass graves were found in the area – contained over 300 bodies, according to medical workers there. They were discovered following reports of mass arrests and mass killings during the military siege of the hospital, a siege that lasted on and off for three months with several raids into the compound.

In September, the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reported that the rights group had documented 30 mass graves out of more than 130 containing three or more bodies, that have been dug since October 2023.

Just last week, the International Criminal Court accused senior Israel leaders, Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant of war crimes, and the existence of such mass graves only bolsters the case for prosecution.

Many are dug by residents themselves, who have had no option but to bury their slain relatives and neighbors wherever they could.

But witness accounts suggest it was the Israeli military who buried the bodies at Nasser.

“My husband was receiving treatment at Nasser following a severe injury to his leg,” Khuloud said when The Electronic Intifada spoke to her last month.

He sustained the injury after Israeli airstrikes hit a house next to the family’s on 19 December in the Bani Suhaila area east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, but in January, when the Israeli military first besieged the medical complex, his family lost all contact.

Khuloud said it was not until after Israeli forces withdrew on 7 April – after months of raids and sieges in the area – that she could go to the hospital, where she was told by a member of the staff that the Israeli army had detained and killed several of the patients and that perhaps her husband was one of them.

Identified by his shoes

Khalil al-Sayed’s son, Ahmed, 23, had been missing for two months.

Speaking to The Electronic Intifada in October, Khalil said his son had told him he was seeking refuge in the medical compound with friends thinking they would be safe from the Israeli attacks.

“After the Israeli army withdrew from the compound, I went to the tent where my son and his friends had been staying, but I found only rubble,” Khalil, 45, said.

“I found one of his friends a week later. He told me that my son had been executed by Israeli soldiers – two bullets directly at his head – because he did not have an ID card.”

Khalil was eventually able to locate his son’s decomposing body and identify him by his shirt and shoes.

“What did my son do to be killed and buried in such an immoral and inhumane way? What was his crime?” Khalil, who had fled from Gaza City to Khan Younis in November 2023, asked.

“He wasn’t armed; he sought shelter in the medical complex. But there is no safe place in Gaza. The occupation targets everything.”

Dr. Ahmed Abu Mustafa, who works at Nasser hospital, called for an international investigation into Israeli military conduct in the hospital.

“The discovery of mass graves shows the need for an independent international committee to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killing of unarmed civilians,” he told The Electronic Intifada.

Al-Shifa grave

A mass grave was also discovered at al-Shifa Hospital in April after an Israeli withdrawal.

Hamza Nabhan had lost all contact with and knowledge of his 26-year-old son Ali during an Israeli raid on al-Shifa hospital in March.

“My son and I were arrested from my house adjacent to the hospital after the Israeli army stormed it. We were tied up, blindfolded with a piece of cloth, and placed inside an Israeli armored vehicle that took us to al-Shifa,” he said.

He was interrogated for two hours, he told The Electronic Intifada, and when he was released, he was separated from his son.

Hamza posted photos of his son in shops, near hospitals and on taxi windows in the hope someone might have any news.

When in April he heard news of a mass grave, he went to al-Shifa to search for his son. Eventually, he was able to recognize his son’s “almost decomposed” body by the shoes and wristwatch he was wearing.

“Despite the pain and sadness of losing him, I felt relief that I had finally found him,” Hamza said. “I buried him in the neighborhood cemetery after performing the funeral prayer.”

Al-Shifa hospital has been a regular target of Israel’s genocidal violence. Back in November 2023, Israel claimed, without evidence but with its own computer generated graphics, that Hamas had dug an underground command center under the hospital.

Despite several raids on the hospital, no evidence of any such underground complex was ever presented.

Israel’s repeated attacks on the hospital have caused dozens of deaths and hundreds of injuries, while the Israeli military has detained medical staff, patients and displaced people seeking safety in what is supposed to be a protected building under international law.

Mohammed al-Mughair, of Gaza’s Civil Defense, said bodies found in the mass graves at Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals showed signs of torture. Some were found with their hands and feet bound, and even with medical IVs still attached, he said.

Others, he said, showed signs of mutilation.

“Some of the bodies had gunshot wounds to the head, suggesting they were executed in the field. Some were found wearing surgical attire, indicating they may have been buried alive.”

Taghreed Ali is a journalist based in Gaza.