[9] The discovery has caused international concern over potential war crimes and calls for an investigation, including by the United Nations (UN).
[21] The hospital was shelled multiple times throughout the war and received significant international media coverage after the death of a 13-year-old amputee, Donia Abu Mohsen, who had survived a previous Israeli airstrike that had killed her entire family.
[25] Israeli soldiers entered the hospital on 15 February 2024 from the south; according to a spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry they destroyed tents and bulldozed a mass grave.
[32] Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attributed the hospital's inability to continue operating to the Israeli siege and raid.
[34][35] According to Palestinian government-run news agency Wafa, some bodies were found suspicious of organ theft with their stomachs open and stitched up, contrary to the usual wound closure techniques in the Gaza Strip.
The mutilated body of a little girl wearing a surgical gown was also found, prompting suspicions that she had been buried alive.
According to Colonel Yamen Abu Suleiman the bodies exhibited signs of having been bound and potentially executed in the field.
[38][39][40] According to a report by France24, based on analysis of photographs and video, the location of the exhumations is around the same area as the earlier mass burials, but there is no way to verify how many bodies were buried there prior to the Israeli withdrawal in April 2024.
[2] Geoconfirmed presented a similar analysis, saying that the exhumations took place at the same location as the earlier mass burials conducted by Palestinians, although they didn't exclude the possibility that the graves had been added to by Israeli forces.
[41][42] A week later, Palestinians buried dozens of unidentified bodies taken from Al-Shifa hopistal and the Indonesian hospital in a mass grave in Khan Yunis.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stated that "Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women, and the wounded, while others were found tied and stripped of their clothes.
"[59] In June 2024, Medical Aid for Palestinians released a statement saying it was "deeply concerned" that no international investigators had been allowed into Gaza.
"[17][18] Sky News published an analysis of satellite imagery and social media footage of mass graves dug by Palestinians during Israel's siege, which were later bulldozed by the IDF.