The relentless Israeli attacks across Gaza have forced Palestinians to bury those killed in makeshift graveyards.
Almost 19,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks since October 7. Scores of bodies are also reported to be buried under the rubble of destroyed infrastructure that rescue officials and residents have not been able to get to.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila has called for an “urgent probe” after Israeli forces were accused of crushing Palestinians, including wounded patients, using bulldozers in the yard of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.
On Saturday, doctors and other witnesses said Israeli forces bulldozed tents housing displaced Palestinians near the hospital and crushed them to death. Witnesses told reporters that civilians were deliberately targeted.
“People were buried alive using bulldozers. Who could do that? All those who committed this crime should be brought to justice and taken to the International Criminal Court,” a witness said.
French FM Catherine Colonna has arrived in Israel where she was due to press for an “immediate and durable” truce.
The truce should lead to a lasting ceasefire with the aim of releasing all captives and delivering aid to Gaza, read a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
Colonna will meet her Israeli counterpart Eli Cohen in Tel Aviv before moving to the occupied West Bank where she is scheduled to meet her Palestinian counterpart, Riyad al-Maliki.
The visit comes as France condemned the Israeli bombing of a civilian building in southern Gaza that killed one of its diplomatic staff.
A WHO team has described the emergency department at the largest hospital in Gaza as a “bloodbath” and in need of “resuscitation”, with hundreds of wounded people inside and more arriving every minute.
“WHO staff said that the emergency department is so full that care must be exercised to not step on patients on the floor,” the UN agency posted on X, adding that “patients with trauma injuries were being sutured on the floor, and limited to no pain management is available”.
Al-Shifa Hospital, located in north Gaza, has been repeatedly targeted by Israeli forces since the war began on October 7.
A team from WHO and other UN agencies was able to deliver medical supplies to the hospital on Saturday.
According to the WHO team at al-Shifa, “tens of thousands” were using the facility grounds for sheltering.
