CAIRO: As Israel stepped up airstrikes on Rafah and planned to launch an all-out ground assault despite allies’ warnings this could cause mass casualties, Pales­tinian authorities on Thursday asked the United Nations to conduct a probe into mass graves at Gaza hospitals.

Medics in the besieged Palestinian enclave reported five Israeli airstrikes on Rafah early on Thursday that hit at least three houses, killing at least six people including a local journalist.

In the seventh month of a devastating air and ground war against Hamas, Israeli forces also resumed bombarding northern and central areas of the Gaza Strip, as well as east of Khan Yunis in the south.

Israeli warplanes had hammered the north for a second day on Wednesday, shattering weeks of comparative calm there.

Palestinian authorities seek UN probe into mass graves at Gaza hospitals

The war, now in its seventh month, has killed at least 34,305 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities said on Thursday.

In the north, Israeli forces continued to pound Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Zeitoun, with some residents saying Hamas and Islamic Jihad were fighting Israeli ground forces with anti-tank rockets, mortar bombs and sniper fire.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian civil defence team on Thursday called on the United Nations to investigate what it said were war crimes at a Gaza hospital, saying nearly 400 bodies were recovered from mass graves after Israeli soldiers departed the complex.

“There are cases of field execution of some patients while undergoing surgeries and wearing surgical gowns at the Nasser Medical Complex,” the civil defence forces said at a press conference.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2024