GAZA’s civil defence agency has said that the bodies of 50 Palestinians were retrieved from a mass grave in southern Gaza.
In a statement released on Saturday, it was confirmed that emergency medical services recovered the bodies from a mass grave at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, two weeks after Israeli forces withdrew from the area.
“Our teams continue their search and retrieval operations for the remaining martyrs in the coming days as there are still a significant number of them,” it added.
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It comes after we also told earlier this week how two mass graves were also discovered at the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, while another was found in Beit Lahiya.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes on Rafah continued overnight with around 13 people killed, including nine children, health officials have said.
Israel has carried out near-daily air raids on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s population of 2.3 million have sought refuge from fighting elsewhere.
It has also vowed to expand its ground offensive to the city on the border with Egypt despite international calls for restraint, including from the US.
The first overnight strike killed a man, his wife and their three-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies. The woman was pregnant, and the doctors managed to save the baby, the hospital said.
The second strike killed eight children and two women, all from the same family, according to hospital records. An air strike in Rafah the night before killed nine people, including six children.
The Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials, devastated Gaza’s two largest cities and left a swathe of destruction across the territory.
Around 80% of the population have fled their homes to other parts of the besieged coastal enclave, which experts say is on the brink of famine.
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The Israeli military meanwhile said troops “neutralised” two Palestinians who attacked a checkpoint with a knife and a gun near the southern West Bank town of Hebron early on Sunday. It was not immediately clear if they were killed. No Israeli forces were wounded.
Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call for new elections to replace Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a deal with Hamas to release the hostages.
Netanyahu (above) has vowed to continue the war until Hamas is destroyed and all the hostages are returned.
Israel's bombardment has killed at least 34,049 Palestinians and wounded another 76,901, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count but says at least two-thirds have been children and women.
It also says the real toll is likely to be higher because many bodies are underneath the rubble left by air strikes or are in areas that are unreachable for medics.
The Israeli military says it has killed more than 13,000 Hamas fighters, without providing evidence.
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