179 martyrs buried in mass grave at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza

The Director of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, Mihammad Abu Salmiya, has asserted that dozens of martyrs have been buried in a mass grave on the hospital grounds due to the continued Israeli siege and aggression on the Strip for the 39th day.

Abu Salmia told AFP that at least 179 bodies were buried in a mass grave at the hospital yesterday, explaining that among them were seven children who died due to power outages.

In remarks to Al Jazeera Net, Abu Salmiya said that the hospital administration had to bury the martyrs in a mass grave inside the complex because their bodies had decomposed and were not allowed to be buried outside the hospital.

The director of the medical complex, which has been subjected to repeated attacks and an Israeli siege that has taken it out of service, pointed out that the grave that was dug is small and cannot accommodate the burial of all the martyrs.

He also noted that the Israeli occupation is sentencing patients, the wounded and displaced to death due to its continued siege of the complex, and that 40 of the wounded have died inside it.

Israeli occupation forces last night raided Al-Shifa Hospitals, firing smoke bombs into the emergency department before carrying out searches. Doctors said not a single shot was fired from within the medical complex but they heard Israeli forces shooting into it. It’s unclear if or how many people were killed or injured in the raid as communications channels were blocked as it was taking place.

READ: Too close and too cold, premature babies in grave peril at Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital