Mass graves at hospital in Gaza after Israel withdrew its forces | BBC News

Palestinian locals said the burnt-out remains of the al-Shifa hospital “reeked of death” after Israeli forces left on 1 April.

During the past eight months of war, hospitals have come under repeated attack, with Israel claiming they are used as bases by Hamas; something the group denies.

But events at al-Shifa – once the biggest and best equipped medical facility in the Gaza Strip – have arguably been the most dramatic.

The two-week surprise raid, launched after Israel said Hamas had regrouped at the site, was described by the Israeli government as "precise and surgical".

Its spokesman, Avi Hyman, asserted that it had set "the gold standard of urban warfare". He said: “We took out over 200 terrorists. We apprehended over 900 terrorists with not a single civilian casualty.

With decaying bodies sticking out of the sand piled up by combat bulldozers in the courtyards of al-Shifa, the claim that there had been no civilian casualties was immediately questioned.

In recent weeks, four mass graves have been uncovered at the site, with Palestinian search teams saying that several hundred bodies have been found.

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