Palestinians recover bodies left by Israeli army during al-Shifa raid
Emergency services and civil defence personnel carry a recovered body from al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, 8 April 2024
Mohammed al-Hajjar and and Nader Durgham report in Middle East Eye on 9 April 2024:
Palestinians are recovering the bodies of those killed by Israel’s two-week raid on al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but identification is proving difficult because of the state of decomposition.
After Israeli forces withdrew from the hospital on 1 April, teams from several government ministries have been deployed to al-Shifa to remove and identify bodies before burying them in cemeteries.
“We are now digging up all the martyrs that were executed by the [Israeli] army,” Hussein Mahassen, ambulance director in the Gaza Strip, told Middle East Eye. “Our capacities are very limited, as we are working with just one bulldozer.”
While it is unclear how many bodies have been buried in the hospital’s yard, the Civil Defence said that they have recovered 409 bodies from the medical complex since the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
Mahassen said his team expects to find between 200 and 300 bodies buried in the ground in al-Shifa, but cannot confirm this number. “We have women and children tied and handcuffed,” he added, describing some of the bodies they have recovered. “They will be taken out and have their relatives identify them. They will then be buried in the known cemeteries in the Gaza Strip.
Reports emerging from the hospital and its vicinity following the Israeli army’s raid spoke of torture against detained Palestinians, with medical teams in al-Shifa currently documenting these cases. “There are signs of torture on some of the arms and bodies we pulled out,” Mahassen said.
Bodies unrecognisable
Medical and forensic teams said that their mission is particularly difficult because of the state of the remains.
Khalil Hamada, the director general of medicine and forensic laboratory, told MEE they are trying to gather what remains from the bodies of those killed. “The bodies were torn apart and have decomposed, it is now very difficult to recognise them,” he said. “The families are trying to identify what remains of their killed relatives.”