“Deep concern” – UN Security Council calls for independent investigation into mass graves in Gaza

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) expressed deep concern on Friday over the discovery of mass graves in the war-torn Gaza Strip.

In a press statement, Council members expressed deep concern at reports of the discovery of mass graves in and around the Nasser and Al Shifa medical facilities in Gaza, where several hundred bodies, including women, children and the elderly, were buried.

They stressed the need for accountability for violations of international law and called for investigators to be granted unhindered access to all sites of mass graves in Gaza in order to conduct prompt, independent, thorough, comprehensive, transparent and impartial investigations into the circumstances behind the graves to determine.

“Organized State Terrorism” – OIC says discovery of mass graves in Gaza requires investigation

Council members reiterated their call for all parties to scrupulously comply with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly with regard to the protection of civilians and civilian objects.

They reiterated the importance of informing families about the fate and whereabouts of their missing loved ones, in accordance with international humanitarian law.

They emphasized the need for all parties to immediately and fully implement resolutions 2728 (2024), 2720 (2023) and 2712 (2023).

Mass graves

Hundreds of bodies have so far been recovered from the medical complex’s mass grave after the Israeli army withdrew from the city on April 7, according to Al Jazeera. The army’s withdrawal was followed by a four-month ground offensive.

These individuals, belonging to various groups and ages, were killed by the Israeli military during their incursion into the Nasser complex, with a significant number being women and children.

Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanou said in a statement last month that the recovery of the bodies was “additional evidence of the bloodiness of the occupation, its Nazism and the extent of the genocide it practiced” against the Palestinian people.

‘Signs of torture’ – 392 bodies found in mass graves at Nasser Hospital

“Mass graves and daily genocide of our people require international and political pressure to activate UN and international resolutions and implement the precautionary measures taken by the World Court “to protect our people and save them from the genocidal war.”

After a two-week invasion, Israeli forces withdrew from Al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest medical complex in Gaza City, on April 1. The hospital complex was in ruins and completely out of order.

Genocide in the Gaza Strip

Israel is currently on trial at the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians and has been waging a devastating war against Gaza since October 7th.

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health The ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, which began on October 7, has left 34,934 Palestinians dead and 78,572 injured.

In addition, at least 11,000 people are missing, believed to be lying dead under the rubble of their homes across the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian and international organizations say the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

Devastating attacks in Gaza: Journalist among many civilians killed in Israeli bombings

The Israeli war has led to acute famine, especially in the northern Gaza Strip, which has resulted in the deaths of many Palestinians, especially children.

Israeli aggression has also led to the forcible displacement of nearly two million people across the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of those displaced forced into the densely populated southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – now Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the Nakba 1948.

(PC, WAFA)