"No electricity at the morgues, bodies littered in the hospital, stench of decomposition"- mass burials held at Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital amid rising tensions between Israel and Hamas

Gaza’s biggest medical facility, the Al-Shifa hospital said that 179 bodies have been buried in a mass grave. Mohammad Abu, the director of the hospital stated that the mass grave included bodies of babies and patients who have died in the intensive care unit of the medical facility, as the hospital ran out of fuel to run life-saving machinery.

“There are bodies littered in the hospital complex, and there is no longer electricity at the morgues. We were forced to bury them in a mass grave,” said the director of Al-Shifa. The hospital authorities stated that 7 babies and 29 ICU patients were also amongst the 179 who were buried in the mass grave, as the hospital premises reeked of the smell of decomposing bodies. "We are planning to bury them today in a mass grave inside the Al Shifa medical complex. It is going to be very dangerous as we don't have any cover or protection from the ICRC, but we have no other options, the corpses of the martyrs began to decompose,” said Dr. Ahmed Al Mokhallalati, a surgeon at the medical facility.


Since the ‘war’ between Israel and Hamas commenced on October 7, owing to the blockade imposed by Israel, no fuel has been able to enter the Gaza Strip. Israel has alleged that the Al-Shifa hospital conceals underground tunnels used by Hamas.