The number of bodies removed from a mass grave at a major hospital in the Gaza Strip has risen to 283, civil defence teams said as the war, which has killed more than 34,100 Palestinians since early October, entered its 200th day.
The death toll at Nasser Hospital, in the southern city of Khan Younis, continues to rise after the discovery of the mass grave on Saturday, where corpses in medical scrubs were found handcuffed, according to images from the site.
Civil defence director Yamen Abu Suleiman told CNN there were signs of “field executions” at the hospital, two weeks after the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
“We do not know if they were buried alive or executed. Most of the bodies are decomposed,” he said on Monday night.
Palestinians searching for relatives at the medical complex said their bodies had been moved from their original burial site.
The Israeli military has yet to comment on the discovery of the mass grave.
The army launched numerous weeks-long raids on Nasser Hospital, killing and displacing medical staff and patients amid its claims that hospitals were being used as command centres by Hamas.
Hospital authorities have denied the claims.
In February, the enclave’s Health Ministry said the complex had been turned into a “military site” by Israel as wheelchair-bound patients and sick Palestinians were seen fleeing to the nearby city of Rafah.
The mounting death toll comes as the war enters its 200th day.
At least 34,183 Palestinians have been killed and 77,143 wounded since the war began on October 7, caused by the Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,100 people, with 250 taken hostage by the militant group.
While ground forces largely withdrew from southern Gaza earlier this month, air strikes and shelling continue across the enclave, according to Palestinian media.
Beaches in Al Zawaida, Deir Al Balah, and Nuseirat were all bombed at dawn on Tuesday as “intense raids” were reported across the north, the official Wafa news agency reported.
Intense air strikes were also reported in Khan Younis.
Also on Tuesday, a Palestinian was killed in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho amid army raids on the city and its surrounding refugee camps.
Shadi Issa Galaita, 46, was shot dead while two others, including a child, were wounded, according to Wafa.
