Gaza’s Civil Defense announced Wednesday that its teams have recovered the bodies of more than 30 Palestinians from a newly uncovered mass grave inside the grounds of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex, as recovery operations continue across the devastated enclave.

According to an official statement, Civil Defense crews have been working for the fourth consecutive day to retrieve bodies from makeshift and hidden graves scattered throughout the Gaza Strip. The latest discovery at Al-Shifa adds to a rapidly growing toll of victims buried during periods of intense Israeli assaults, when burial in designated cemeteries became impossible.

The agency estimated that approximately 300 bodies are believed to be buried in various mass graves uncovered so far. Recovery teams say they are continuing operations despite immense logistical and security challenges.

Earlier this month, the Gaza Ministry of Health announced the beginning of a coordinated effort to relocate bodies buried within the Al-Shifa Complex. Officials said the transfer would begin on Sunday, December 7, after which all recovered bodies would be classified as unidentified and moved to the Deir al-Balah cemetery in central Gaza.

The ministry noted that many of these emergency burials took place amid ongoing bombardment, when withdrawing the dead to formal burial sites was impossible.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel—backed militarily and politically by the United States and European powers—has waged what Gaza officials and international rights groups describe as a genocidal war against the enclave. The offensive has involved large-scale killing, starvation, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, forced displacement, and widespread arrests, while repeatedly defying United Nations and International Court of Justice rulings calling for a halt to the violence.

According to Gaza authorities, the war has resulted in the killing or injury of over 239,000 Palestinians, the overwhelming majority women and children. More than 11,000 people remain missing, many believed to be trapped under rubble or buried in unmarked graves. Severe famine conditions—intensified by Israel’s siege on food, medicine, and aid—have claimed additional lives, particularly among children.

With vast sections of Gaza reduced to rubble and new mass graves continuing to emerge, Civil Defense teams warn that the true human toll of the war may only become fully clear in the months ahead. (ILKHA)