Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority are demanding an investigation after the reported discovery of about thirty bodies in bags buried under rubble and sand in a school in northern Gaza.
Video and images that emerged Tuesday showed dozens of body bags being uncovered at a school in Beit Lahia that had been used as a shelter during the fighting by hundreds of people. Some of the body bags had tags in Hebrew along with bar codes. CNN has geolocated the video to the Hamad bin Khalifa Secondary School, which along with other schools and shelters in the area was in the middle of intensive combat in early December.
The identity of the victims is unknown, as are the circumstances and date of their deaths. The area was the scene of heavy fighting in December, and two schools in Beit Lahia, including Hamad bin Khalifa, were surrounded by the Israeli military for a time. Satellite imagery from January 13 shows a number of craters in the immediate area and the tracks of bulldozers.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported Wednesday “the discovery of the bodies of 30 martyrs inside one of the schools that was besieged by the occupation,” and alleged that those killed had been “handcuffed and blindfolded.”
The accusation was later repeated by Hamas in a statement, which demanded human rights organizations “document this horrific crime.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry in the occupied West Bank also called “for the formation of an international field investigation team” into what it described as “the massacres committed by the occupation.” It alleged that “according to testimonies from Palestinian citizens, more than 30 decomposing bodies…have been discovered buried in the north of the Gaza Strip. They were killed, seemingly executed, while blindfolded and their hand shackled.”
CNN cannot independently verify that any of the victims had been handcuffed or blindfolded.
CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on the allegations made, providing the video and geographic co-ordinates.
