UNITED NATIONS –
The United Nations on Tuesday called for “a clear, transparent and credible investigation” into mass graves discovered in two major hospitals in war-torn Gaza that were raided by Israeli troops.
Credible investigators must have access to the sites, UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters, adding that more journalists need to be able to work safely in Gaza to report on the events.
Earlier Tuesday, U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk said he was “horrified” by the destruction of the Shifa medical center in Gaza City and the Nasser hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, as well as the discovery of mass graves in and around the facilities. after the Israelis left.
He called for independent and transparent investigations into the deaths, saying that “given the prevailing climate of impunity, this should include international investigators.”
“Hospitals are entitled to very special protection under international humanitarian law,” Türk said. “And the intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are ‘hors de combat’ (unable to participate in combat) is a war crime.”
U.S. State Department spokesman Vedant Patel on Tuesday called reports of mass graves in hospitals “incredibly troubling” and said U.S. officials had asked the Israeli government for information.
The Israeli military said its forces exhumed bodies that Palestinians had previously buried as part of their search for the remains of hostages captured by Hamas during its Oct. 1 attack. 7 attacks that started the war. The military said the bodies were examined respectfully and those that did not belong to Israeli hostages were returned to their place.
The Israeli military says it killed or detained hundreds of militants who had taken refuge inside the two hospital complexes, claims that could not be independently verified.
The Palestinian civil defense in the Gaza Strip said on Monday it had discovered 283 bodies from a temporary cemetery inside the main hospital in Khan Younis that was built when Israeli forces laid siege to the facility last month. At the time, people could not bury the dead in a cemetery and dug graves in the hospital courtyard, the group said.
The civil defense said some of the bodies of people died during the hospital siege. Others died when Israeli forces stormed the hospital.
Palestinian health officials say hospital raids have destroyed Gaza’s health sector as it tries to cope with the rising number of casualties after more than six months of war.
The question of who could or should conduct an investigation remains contested.
For the United Nations to carry out an investigation, one of its main agencies would have to authorize it, Dujarric said.
“I don’t think anyone should prejudge the results or who would do it,” he said. “I think it should be an investigation where there is access and credibility.”
International Criminal Court chief prosecutor Karim Khan said after visiting Israel and the West Bank in December that a court investigation into possible crimes committed by Hamas militants and Israeli forces “is a priority for my office.”
The discovery of the graves “is another reason why we need a ceasefire, why we need to see an end to this conflict, why we need greater access for humanitarian personnel, for humanitarian goods, greater protection for hospitals” and for the release of Israeli hostages, Dujarric said Monday.
In the Hamas attack that started the war, militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapped about 250 hostages. Israel says militants are still holding around 100 hostages and the remains of more than 30 others.
In response, Israel’s air and ground offensive in Gaza, aimed at eliminating Hamas, has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, about two-thirds of them children and women. It has devastated Gaza’s two largest cities, created a humanitarian crisis and led about 80 percent of the territory’s population to flee to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave.