Palestinian Officials Recover Dozens Of Bodies Buried By IDF In Al-shifa

Head of the Government Media Office in Gaza, Salama Marouf:
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After several days of government teams working to locate the bodies of martyrs hidden by the occupation army in the corners of Al-Shifa Medical Complex and under its rubble and debris, the teams managed to recover 30 martyrs buried in two graves, one in front of the emergency department and the other in front of the kidney department.

12 martyrs’ bodies were identified, while the rest remain unidentified. The occupation army deliberately hid and deeply buried the bodies in the sand, covering them with waste. Some of the bodies found were of women, elderly, and also wounded individuals, with some having their hands tied and stripped of their clothes, indicating that they were executed in cold blood.

The fate of about 1,000 citizens, medical staff, and journalists who were in the Complex at the moment of the occupation army’s raid remains unknown, with no information on whether they were arrested, killed, or their bodies hidden elsewhere.

The heinous and despicable crime committed by the occupation army in storming and completely destroying the largest medical Complex in Palestine, known as the most horrific massacre in history against a medical complex by bombing, burning, and bulldozing it, is part of its war that destroys all elements of life and means of survival within the Gaza Strip.

This crime is no less than its other crime of killing patients, the wounded, doctors, and displaced people, and forcibly deporting and arresting them to the south.

Al-Shifa Medical Complex was the last health refuge for more than 700,000 citizens in northern Gaza and was a lifeline for hundreds of severe injuries resulting from the ongoing “israeli” genocide, meaning that northern Gaza is now without any real health service amidst the limited capacity and poor resources of the Arab Community Hospital.

This catastrophic health situation urgently requires the establishment of field hospitals in the governorates of Gaza and the North, and swift action to rectify the destruction inflicted on the health infrastructure in northern Gaza Strip, and to supply the health sector with all the necessary needs to perform its duty.

On the other hand, we call on the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to investigate this massacre committed by the occupation army at Al-Shifa Complex, in all its details, whether against the complex or against the citizens, displaced persons, medical and journalistic staff.

Salama Marouf
Head of the Government Media Office
Northern Gaza-Palestine
Thursday, April 18, 2024