The UN Security Council on Friday called for an investigation into mass graves discovered near hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Graves containing hundreds of bodies have been discovered in recent weeks near Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and Al Shifa in Gaza City.

Last month, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed dismay at reports from Palestinian officials that some of the bodies found in a mass grave had their hands tied.

Hospitals and health facilities must be protected under international humanitarian law.

Israel has dismissed as unfounded accusations that its soldiers buried Palestinian bodies in mass graves, arguing that some graves were examined as part of the search for hostages still missing in the Gaza Strip.

“The UN Security Council calls for immediate, independent, thorough, detailed, transparent and impartial investigations into the mass graves discovered in the Nasser and Al Shifa hospital complexes in Gaza,” says the statement of the British mission to the United Nations, in which it is underlined that there must be “accountability for violations of international law”.

Members of the UN Security Council expressed deep concern over reports of the discovery of mass graves near the Nasser and Al Shifa hospital complexes in Gaza, where hundreds of people, including women, children and the elderly, had been buried.

Members reiterated their demand that all parties comply scrupulously with their obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, particularly with regard to the protection of civilians and civilian objects, and reaffirmed the importance of allowing families to know the fate and location of their missing relatives, in accordance with international humanitarian law.

According to the Security Council statement, all parties should immediately and fully implement resolutions 2728 (2024), 2720 (2023) and 2712 (2023).