Dead bodies found in mass graves at two of Gaza Strip’s biggest hospitals neared 400 on Thursday, the sixth consecutive day of excavation works, and bore signs of torture, executions and live burial allegedly by Israeli occupying forces.

Officials in the enclave said the mass graves were found to host 392 bodies, including those of women, children and the elderly, as of Thursday, Al Jazeera reported.

Palestinian Civil Defence officials on Thursday revealed horrifying new details about the mass graves around the Nasser and al-Shifa hospitals.

Ten of the bodies were found with bound hands while others still had medical tubes attached to them, indicating they may have been buried alive, said civil defence member Mohammed Mughier.

“We need forensic examination for approximately 20 bodies for people who we think were buried alive,” Mughier said.

Yamen Abu Sulaiman, the head of the civil defence department in southern Khan Younis where Nasser Hospital is located, said three separate mass graves were found at the facility – one behind the morgue, one in front of the morgue, and one near the dialysis building.

Only 65 bodies have been identified by relatives of 392 recovered due to decomposition, mutilation and torture, or other difficulties, he said, adding that bodies were “stacked together” and showed indications of field executions having taken place.

At a news conference in southern Rafah on Thursday, Abu Sulaiman called on the international community to exert pressure to “put an immediate end to this aggression against our people”, as well as for humanitarian organisations and international media to be let into Gaza to “examine these crimes”.

Mughier, who provided photographic and video evidence of the remains of children, said “why do we have children in mass graves?,” adding that the evidence shows Israeli soldiers committed “crimes against humanity”.

The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, called for an “independent, effective and transparent investigations” into the deaths.

Israeli army spokesman Major Nadav Shoshani claimed the graves at Nasser Hospital were “dug by Gazans a few months ago”. The Israeli military has also confirmed digging up bodies from graves, but in a stated effort to look for captives still held in the enclave.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro pointed out that Sullivan did not call for an “independent” investigation, meaning that the United States is content with Israel looking into the matter.

“That is the major difference between the US’s call for an investigation into the mass graves compared to that of other world leaders and of the UN High Commissioner [for human rights],” she said.

Zhou-Castro said accountability stays even further out of reach.