The total number of bodies found increased to 310, Colonel Yamen Abu Suleiman, the director of Civil Defense in Khan Younis, told CNN, adding that operations are ongoing.
Suleiman previously said some of the bodies were found with hands and feet tied, “and there were signs of field executions. We do not know if they were buried alive or executed. Most of the bodies are decomposed.”
Hamas spokesman Abdul Latif al-Qanou stressed the uncovering of mass graves in the courtyard of the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis is “new additional evidence … of the genocide” being carried out against Palestinians.
“The mass graves and daily genocide being committed against our people requires international and political pressure,” al-Qanou said in a statement.
He called on the international community to “activate relevant resolutions as well as provisional measures issued by the International Court of Justice to save our people from this genocidal war”.
Israel has waged a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which Tel Aviv says killed nearly 1,200 people.
At least 34,151 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and 77,000 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.
The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to stop genocidal acts and take measures to guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.
