Like the other parents of missing people, who keep returning to this devastated corner of Khan Younis, disappointment is etched across her face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rescue workers begin exhuming early, with dozens pulled out of the ground as the day goes on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Palestinian<\/a> mothers waiting patiently around the burial pits, any news of their sons is good news, even if that means they are dead. Some have been missing for three months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI look at each body\u2019s face, but I have not been guided to my son,\u201d Baiouk tells Middle East Eye.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It can be difficult to distinguish the corpses\u2019 features. Bodies can be badly decomposed or have been mutilated in some way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf my son\u2019s face is not visible, I will recognise him through his teeth,\u201d says Baiouk. \u201cHe has a tooth that rises above the rest, and I can find him that way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n All around these mass graves is destruction. Nasser hospital\u2019s surviving buildings are hollow shells, and the surrounding area has simply been erased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Israeli<\/a> forces began their assault on Khan Younis in January, with attacks sending Palestinian residents fleeing. Around 10,000 people took shelter in the southern Gaza town\u2019s hospital, alongside 450 patients and 300 staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hospital itself repeatedly came under attack. In February, Israeli troops staged an offensive on the facility, and remained there until pulling out of Khan Younis altogether earlier this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s when returning Palestinians discovered suspicious piles of sand and earth outside the hospital\u2019s ruins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yamen Abu Suleiman, head of the civil defence search-and-rescue team in Khan Younis, said three burial pits have been found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first two were originally dug by hospital staff in the perimeter within the hospital compound\u2019s walls while under Israeli siege, as they were unable to safely take cadavers to cemeteries. On 27 January, health officials said they had buried 150 people<\/a> in the hospital grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A third burial pit appears to have been dug when Israel occupied the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Israeli military denies it dug any graves, saying it \u201crespectfully\u201d exhumed bodies while searching for some of the 133 captives taken during the 7 October Hamas-led attack on Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Abu Suleiman, however, they not only roughly exhumed the graves but dug a new pit in which they dumped many more bodies, \u201cincluding people they killed inside the hospital\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When rescue workers began clearing the piles of sand around the hospital, they never expected to find limbs emerging as they worked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men, women and children were among the dead. Some, according to rescue workers and the UN human rights office, had their hands tied behind their backs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The civil defence says there are bodies wearing the uniforms<\/a> Israel uses for detainees. People appear to have been shot in the head, it says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey have brought out 330 bodies so far from a single burial site,\u201d Abu Suleiman tells MEE. \u201cThere are still two more to check.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"Amal](\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/sites\/default\/files\/WhatsApp%20Image%202024-04-25%20at%2015.31.38.jpeg\" "\\"Amal")
‘It\u2019s like fire. I want closure’<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/gaza-woman-nasser-bodies-afp-1024x576.jpg\" "\\"A")
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/sites\/default\/files\/mass%20grave%20workers%20nasser%20gaza%20afp.jpg\" "\\"People")