IDF rejects 'baseless' claim it dug mass graves at Gaza hospital; analysts also doubt charge

[Beastly Boy]

Evidence suggests Palestinian assertion of discovery of hundreds of bodies buried by IDF is false — and that the bodies were previously buried there by the Palestinians themselves

Hamas officials in Gaza claimed on Saturday to discover a mass grave with more than 200 bodies at a hospital in Khan Younis that was recently the target of a military raid. The officials claimed the dead were buried in a mass grave by Israeli forces, but evidence suggested this claim was false, with the bodies having previously been buried at that same location by Palestinians amid the fighting between Israeli forces and terror operatives in the area.

The Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday rejected Hamas’s allegation as “baseless.” It said forces searching for Israeli hostages had examined bodies previously buried by Palestinians near Nasser Hospital and had returned the bodies to where they were buried after they were examined.

It has been documented that Palestinians buried their dead at the hospital grounds both before and while Israeli troops operated in the area. Hamas officials in Gaza claimed on Saturday to discover a mass grave with more than 200 bodies at a hospital in Khan Younis that was recently the target of a military raid.

--snip-

It has been documented that Palestinians buried their dead at the hospital grounds both before and while Israeli troops operated in the area. The location of that burial site was geo-located by experts to the same location where Hamas officials claimed to have discovered the new mass grave.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-rejects-baseless-claim-it-dug-mass-graves-at-gaza-hospital-analysts-also-doubt-charge/

[WhiteTara]

1. They dug up mass graves with

a bulldozer. I assume they reburied them.

[Beastly Boy]

4. A bulldoser? It wasn't mentioned in the article.

Are you referring to a different article? I would appreciate a link.

[WhiteTara]

6. here you go

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/20/middleeast/israel-gaza-cemeteries-desecrated-investigation-intl-cmd/index.html

But in other cases, the Israeli military appears to have used cemeteries as military outposts. CNN’s analysis of satellite imagery and videos showed that Israeli bulldozers turned multiple cemeteries into staging grounds, leveling large swaths and erecting berms to fortify their positions.

In the Shajaiya neighborhood of Gaza City, Israeli military vehicles could be seen where the cemetery once stood, with berms surrounding them on all sides. The central part of the Shajaiya cemetery was cleared before the war, according to local media reports. But satellite imagery showed other portions were more recently bulldozed, and an IDF presence visible, from December 10.

here's The Telegraph
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/01/19/israel-idf-admits-digging-up-gaza-graves/

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has admitted to digging up Palestinian graves in a Gaza cemetery.

Footage emerged earlier this week from a bulldozed graveyard in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where smashed graves lay open and human remains covered in shrouds had been left on the surface without being reburied.

The IDF said its soldiers dug up graves in the cemetery to see if dead hostages were buried there.

“The hostage identification process, conducted at a secure and alternative location, ensures optimal professional conditions and respect for the deceased,” it told NBC, the American broadcaster.

But photographs from the graveyard showed the extensive damage caused by the exhumations.

[Beastly Boy]

12. Gaza City on December 20 of last year?

Thar was four months ago and five miles away from Khan Younis.

Any articles related to the OP?

[WhiteTara]

8. here's Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_razing_of_cemeteries_and_necroviolence_against_Palestinians

Israeli forces damaged or destroyed at least 16 cemeteries in the Gaza Strip[1] during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war in various places in Gaza within Palestine, as determined by evidence gathered by CNN, the New York Times and Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

According to Israel, their intentions were to: first, search for the bodies of Israeli hostages in a certain location after receiving intelligence to that end; and second, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that the digging up of Beit Hanoun Cemetery near Khan Yunis was because they discovered what they claimed to be a Hamas command center in a tunnel, which, it contended, without providing evidence, lay directly beneath the cemetery. CNN was unable to verify either the location of the tunnel being underneath the cemetery, and searched for but found no tunnel entrance on the cemetery grounds.[2]

More broadly, there are reports of various forms of necroviolence against Palestinians (against corpses) in the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In addition to the desecration or destruction of cemeteries, techniques include the withholding of Palestinian bodies from families, thus preventing the families' ability to mourn their loved ones; and "cemeteries of numbers" where graves are marked only with numbers and not names, thus dehumanizing the dead.[3][4]

A listing of the various activities follow.

[marble falls]

2. Simple: dig it up and prove them wrong.

[Beastly Boy]

5. Not sure who is referred to as "them". Palestinian authorities? Israel? Analysts?

Last edited Sat Apr 27, 2024, 06:26 PM - Edit history (1)

Who is supposed to do the digging and who is supposed to do the proving?

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Unless some non-Jew entity comes out and says this is true, except of course the US...

...then it is not the believed.

[Cha]

7. I reject it too. Fuck fucking Hamas PROPAGANDA!

🕯️🕊️💙🇮🇱💙🌊🇺🇸

[Ping Tung]

9. Truth is the first casualty in war. Aeschylus 500bc

[dsp3000]

10. IDF has commited enough war crimes who cares if this one is true or not.

Israel has lost their moral high ground long long ago and it's time everyone acknowledges it

[Beastly Boy]

13. That's a subjective comment and you are entitled to it.

But it doesn't create in me a sense of obligation.

[wnylib]

15. And Hamas has never had any moral high ground and still doesn't.

Just to balance out the comments on who is credible in reporting.

[dsp3000]

16. Nope.. never claimed hamas had any high ground. But to anyone sympathizing with the IDF or claming

IDF is having a "just war" is just not facing the facts of reality right now. and FWIW, I think these protests are not helping the cause of palestinians either. all performative BS in my opinion.

[Beastly Boy]

20. It wasn't a rebuttal of your claim, since you didn't make one.

It was, in the poster's words, "Just to balance out the comments on who is credible in reporting." A comparison of the respective moral grounds of the two warring parties, and who is more believable on the basis of this comparison.

For my part, I too am puzzled with the expression of blatant disregard for the truth in your post. But that was your choice to make.

[yardwork]

19. Many people have been saying that since 1950 or so.

The accusation justifies October 7 and many other events. Kind of convenient.

[womanofthehills]

11. NYT - now 392 bodies

Palestinian officials in Gaza on Thursday increased the tally of bodies discovered in a mass grave on the grounds of a hospital to 392 from 283, amid conflicting accounts between Israel and the Gazan authorities over how and when some of the bodies were buried.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/25/world/middleeast/gaza-mass-grave-nasser-hospital.html

[Beastly Boy]

14. NYT saying there are conflicting accounts between Hamas and IDF while citing Hamas and not IDF.

Pretty impartial of them, won't you say?

[betsuni]

17. Hamas says IDF responsible for mass graves near a Hamas military center (hospital) but they didn't notice

IDF doing this right in front of them at the time? Now IDF is digging them up because they must've forgotten, just to be mean? The nice terrorists would never, ever tie up and execute anyone not with their group, don't be silly, that never happens! I don't get it.

[Beastly Boy]

18. Good point.

And they would never ever execute medical personnel who would resist turning a hospital into a military target and endanger everybody, doctors and patients alike, inside it.