Palestinians Retrieve Remains of Relatives From Al-Shifa Hospital
Gaza City, Gaza — During a brief respite of hostilities in Gaza, Palestinians retrieved the remains of their relatives who were killed by Israeli forces during repeated attacks on Al-Shifa Hospital; over 1,500 Palestinians were killed at this hospital alone. Civil Defense crews exhumed a total of 48 bodies from the grounds of the complex on March 13, 2025, and transported them to cemeteries for proper burial while around 180 Palestinians remained buried in the courtyard of the hospital. A hallmark of Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Gaza Strip’s population has been the repeated and deliberate destruction of medical infrastructure in open violation of international humanitarian law.
“Because there are no cemeteries near and the eastern cemetery is far away and the hospital was surrounded by the Israeli army, many bodies were buried in Al-Shifa Hospital’s yard,” said Akram Al-Hato, whose niece and her five children were killed by Israel along with her husband in January 2024. Al-Hato was able to retrieve their bodies to bring them to Ibn Marwan Cemetery.
“We put the children in one bag with each other, the mother in another bag, and the father in another bag … my niece’s entire family was killed during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip.”
Akram Al-Hato, uncle of a woman killed along with her five children and husband and buried in Al-Shifa Hospital courtyard
Also retrieving his family member, Mohammed Abu Amer told Unicorn Riot that his cousin was fatally shot in the chest while waiting to get some flour to bring back to his family during a famine.
“There was a famine in the Gaza Strip and my cousin went out to get a bag of flour west of Gaza City with his brothers. The first day they went to get a bag of flour but they came back with nothing. The second day, we heard that 50 trucks of flour would be brought into north Gaza, and he went out to get flour. While he was waiting, they shot him directly in the chest and he was martyred instantly.”
Mohammed Abu Amer, cousin was killed by Israel and buried in Al-Shifa Hospital courtyard
Amer said he came to retrieve his cousin’s body and “transfer it to the Sheikh Radwan cemetery.”
Al-Shifa Hospital is the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip has been repeatedly attacked by Israel since October 2023. After Israel’s second siege on the hospital in early 2024, mass graves were found along with hundreds of bodies on the hospital grounds. At least 22 patients were killed in their hospital beds. The hospital was one of the last functioning hospitals and was used as a refuge for thousands of displaced civilians along with hundreds of patients.
On the day that Israeli forces left, April 1, 2024, Unicorn Riot heard from a man sifting through the dirt looking for his brother and nephew. “I’m looking for my brother, but I can’t seem to find him. The tanks have passed through here, and I can’t find either my brother or my nephew. You can see the tank tracks here.”
“We’ve been here digging in the ground since 3 o’clock and we still can’t find him, as you see… We’re digging and retrieving corpses one by one. If it’s not our brother, we bury it again. We’re also searching for our nephew, but we can’t find him either.”
Palestinian man searching for his dead relatives in the courtyard of Al-Shifa Hospital
Palestinian Families Seek Bodies of Relatives After Israel Withdraws From Shifa Hospital Massacre.
Estimates upwards of 1,500 people were killed during Israel’s second siege. Civilians are reported to have been killed, some executed with their hands tied behind their backs, and run over by Israeli tanks.
“The documented crimes were perpetrated against civilians including women, children, elderly people, displaced people, medical professionals, and sick and wounded people,” reported the Euro-Med Monitor.
See Unicorn Riot’s 2024 report: Ongoing War Crimes: Israel Targets Journalists, Aid Workers, Civilians in Gaza for more.
At least 61,700 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in the besieged Gaza Strip since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attacks which killed at least 1,139 people killed in Israel and took 251 Israelis hostage. Human rights groups and international courts have ruled that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to genocide.
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