Gaza Officials Suspect Organ Theft From Some Bodies Found In Mass Graves At Naser Hospital

The condition of some of the bodies of civilians found in mass graves at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip raises suspicions of organ theft by Israeli forces, an official said Thursday.

"Some bodies were found with tied hands, opened abdomens and stitched in a manner inconsistent with the usual methods of wound suturing in Gaza, raising suspicions of the disappearance of some organs," Mohammed Al-Mughayer, the director of the supply and equipment department at the Gaza Civil Defense Agency, told a press conference.

"The bodies of a man and a mutilated young girl missing limbs were also found wearing hospital gowns, raising suspicions of their being buried alive," he added.

Al-Mughayer also noted that "the hands of some bodies were found bound with plastic restraints and corpses were wearing white robes used by the Israeli army as clothes for detainees in Nasser Hospital, with marks of gunshot wounds to the head, raising suspicions of their execution and field liquidation."

"We also found many bodies wrapped in black and blue shrouds made of plastic and nylon, which are different than the color of shrouds used in Gaza, raising suspicions that the occupation's goal was to raise the temperature of the bodies to accelerate their decomposition and conceal evidence," he said.

He considered that all the previous evidence "indicates that the occupation (the Israeli army) committed crimes against humanity and carried out field executions on the premises of Nasser Hospital."

"We demand the swift opening of an international investigation into this matter," he added.

The Israeli army withdrew from Khan Younis on April 7 after a four-month-long ground operation in the Nasser Medical Complex.

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.

More than 34,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 77,300 others injured amid mass destruction and severe shortages of necessities.

More than six months into the Israeli war, vast swathes of Gaza lay in ruins, pushing 85% of the enclave's population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine, 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.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul -