Israel will not carry out further sampling on mass graves found in Gaza hospitals as it has already investigated the matter and found no wrongdoing on the part of its troops, Israeli army spokesman Nadav Shoshani told Politico. Hundreds of Palestinian bodies have been discovered in graves.
On Wednesday, US national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Washington wanted the deaths to be “thoroughly and transparently investigated.”
Gaza authorities have said that a total of 392 bodies, including those of children and women, with signs of torture and executions, have so far been found in makeshift cemeteries at two hospitals that were previously raided by the Israeli army.
Shoshani told Politico on Friday that reports that Israeli troops had something to do with the burials were “fake news.”
When asked if that meant Israel would not investigate the matter, he responded: “Investigate what?”
“We gave answers. We don’t bury people in mass graves. “It’s not something we do,” the loudest insisted, without specifying to whom those answers were given.
An anonymous US official told Politico that “the Israelis have told us privately what they said publicly, which is that they totally reject the allegations.” However, the source stressed that Washington authorities “are not in a position to validate it and would like a thorough and transparent investigation of the reports.”
Israel previously said its forces had to fight inside the Nasser and Al-Shifa hospitals because Hamas militants used them as their bases, a claim that both the Palestinian armed group and doctors have denied.
Sullivan’s call for an investigation into mass graves came on the same day that US President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign aid package, which included $26.4 billion in military assistance for Israel.
The death toll from Israel’s airstrikes and ground offensive in Gaza over the past six months has reached 34,356, with another 77,368 injured, according to the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry.