“This is the biggest mass grave since the beginning of the war,” Mahmoud Basal, spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense, a search and rescue department within the Hamas-controlled territory, said Thursday before calling for an international investigation.

A New York Times analysis of social media videos and satellite imagery found that Palestinians had dug at least two of the three burial sites weeks before Israeli troops raided the complex.

Gazan authorities say that mass graves had been dug on the hospital grounds before an Israeli raid there in February but accuse Israel of later opening the site to add bodies.

While The Times could not determine the cause of death for individual people, the initial burials took place in January and February amid a weeks long Israeli offensive in the city.

Israel on Thursday denied accusations that it was responsible for digging the graves at the complex, but previously said it had opened them in the search for the bodies of hostages abducted to Gaza.

Videos shared on social media and verified by The New York Times show that two sites with multiple mass graves were dug at Nasser and bodies were buried starting in January.

Satellite imagery shows that the large mass grave first dug by Gazans underneath the palm trees in the southern part of the complex was disturbed by Israeli forces, including with a bulldozer, lending credence to the Israeli claim that they exhumed and reburied bodies.

There is no clear sign that Israeli troops dug new graves or added bodies to existing ones.
As has been the case so many times, the NYT has clear proof that Hamas routinely lies to the media. It cannot find a shred of evidence that the IDF is not telling the truth. But even throughout this article, it carefully parrots Hamas claims and does everything it can to cast doubt on the Israeli position unless it can find its own definitive proof that Israelis are telling the truth. 

By now, any Hamas claims should be assumed to be lies. (That was the case six months ago as well.) 

News media reported about the same graves in January and February, dug by Gazans. Hamas now makes up a ludicrous claim about them. And even as the media notes the two facts, it still takes Hamas lies seriously and gives them credibility.

There is a real story here: Hamas routinely lies. When have you seen a mainstream media outlet report that?