UN Security Council members are deeply concerned by reports that mass graves have been discovered in and around the Nasser and Al Shifa medical facilities in Gaza and stress the need for accountability, according to their joint statement released on Friday.
"The members of the Security Council expressed their deep concern over reports of the discovery of mass graves, in and around the Nasser and Al Shifa medical facilities in Gaza, where several hundred bodies, including women, children and older persons, were buried," the statement said.
The council also demanded prompt and unbiased investigations.
"The members of the Security Council underlined the need for accountability for violations of international law and called for investigators to be allowed the unimpeded access to all locations of mass graves in Gaza to conduct immediate, independent, thorough, comprehensive, transparent and impartial investigations to establish the circumstances behind the graves."
In late April, Al Jazeera reported that Palestinian officials had discovered a mass grave containing 180 bodies within the Nasser Medical Complex in the Gazan city of Khan Yunis, from where Israeli soldiers had evacuated earlier that month. CNN later claimed, citing Gaza civil defense officials, that around 300 corpses had been discovered at the scene.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated that international investigators must have access to mass graves in Gaza in order to establish the facts. Israeli officials said that Israel was not involved.
Russia also called for undertaking an independent international investigation to bring to justice the perpetrators.