Using shovels and their bare hands, Palestinian families exhumed dozens of bodies from a muddy mass grave beside Shifa Hospital.
They hope to move their loved ones' remains, wrapped in blankets or sheets, for a dignified burial elsewhere. But first they have to find them.
“I’m here to search for my son,” said Soha al-Sharif, breaking down in tears. “He wasn’t unidentified. His name was written on his wrist.”
Gaza's Civil Defense said 48 bodies were unearthed as of Thursday afternoon, including 10 unidentified people. The grave has over 180 bodies.
Abu al-Abid, a Gaza City resident, was visibly distressed as he searched for his pregnant daughter's remains. He says she was killed Jan. 13 by an Israeli airstrike that killed 25 of her family members, including her three children.
A shattered hospital Shifa was once the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip but is severely damaged, with its walls collapsed and scoured by flames and bullet holes. The mass grave is in a courtyard strewn with trash, rubble, and placards bearing the names of those buried.
Mohamed al-Meghayar, a Civil Defense member, told The Associated Press that around 50 of the mass grave’s 180 bodies are unidentified.
Mohamed Abu Salmiyah, Shifa Hospital’s general manager, told AP that the bodies need to be relocated because staffers want to rebuild field hospitals.
Israel says Hamas fighters operated in hospitals during the war, which nullified the protections granted hospitals under international law.
