Index – Abroad – The UN High Commissioner was shocked by the mass graves found at Gaza hospitals

The Palestinian authorities announced the previous day that many bodies had been found in mass graves in the Khan Younis area after the withdrawal of the Israeli army (IDF) from the city.

At a joint press conference with Volker Türk, Ravina Shamdasani, spokeswoman for the High Commissioner, said: 283 bodies were found at Nasser and 30 at es-Sifá hospital, adding that the hands of several victims were tied, which indicates a serious human rights violation.

He said the UN human rights office was cooperating with the Palestinian authorities in the investigation into the mass graves.

According to Palestinian sources, the bodies were found under the rubble of the destroyed building. Among the dead are women and the elderly.

The Israeli army called the claim by Gazan authorities baseless and denied that its soldiers had anything to do with the executions, stressing that they had only exhumed bodies in the search for hostages taken by terrorists in October.

In a statement, the IDF added that the exhumations were carried out “with care and respect for the dignity of the deceased,” only where intelligence sources believed the hostages were located. In the rest of his press conference, Türk also spoke out against the Israeli airstrikes in the area in recent days, which, he said, killed mostly women and children.

He also reiterated his warning that a full-scale operation against Rafah in the southern part of the enclave would lead to further serious atrocities. About 280,000 people lived in the city near the Egyptian border before the war, but since the start of the fighting, the number of people living here – including refugees – has exceeded 1.5 million.

Also on Tuesday, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced that the war has already claimed the lives of 34,183,000 Palestinians and 77,000 wounded.

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