Khthon documents mass graves, atrocity crimes, and forensic evidence from conflict zones worldwide. Our work is strictly humanitarian and apolitical.
This site may contain imagery and descriptions of deceased individuals, violent injuries, and human remains gathered in the course of active investigations. Content is presented for accountability and documentation purposes only.
Khthon documents mass graves, atrocity crimes, and forensic evidence from conflict zones worldwide. Our work is strictly humanitarian and apolitical.
This site may contain imagery and descriptions of deceased individuals, violent injuries, and human remains gathered in the course of active investigations.
Country / Region Overview
The Gaza Strip has become a zone of near-total destruction since October 2023. Sustained bombardment and ground incursions have reduced large swathes of the territory to rubble — and with them, the ordinary systems for recording and burying the dead have collapsed.
Civilian bodies lie beneath collapsed apartment blocks, mixed into debris, or hastily covered in shallow trenches. Gaza is no longer a city with graveyards on its edge — it is a place where the entire urban fabric is now bound up with uncounted dead. Investigations in 2024 brought mass graves into sharp focus: after Israeli operations at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, large trenches containing hundreds of bodies were uncovered. Many appear to hold people who died in bombardments, medical staff and patients killed during raids, and detainees taken from soccer fields or schoolyards who subsequently vanished.
"Gaza is not a city with mass graves on its edge. It is a place where entire neighbourhoods have become mass burial grounds."
— Khthon Field Assessment
Where detained individuals went remains an open question. Survivor testimonies suggest some were executed and buried near military operating sites, but independent forensic access remains blocked. The context of mass grave creation in Palestine is not limited to the current conflict: decades of occupation have produced documented patterns of disappearance and extrajudicial killing across the West Bank, and historical mass graves from earlier periods of conflict — including 1948 and 1967 — remain unexcavated and politically contested.
For Khthon, Gaza is one of the most difficult environments in the world to analyze through GEOINT. The scale of rubble, constant soil disturbance from bombardment, and the overlapping of ordinary cemeteries with improvised pits make remote detection extremely challenging. SOCMINT and HUMINT — geolocated video, satellite time-series of trench digging, eyewitness accounts of detention and disappearance — are the primary tools. What emerges is not a handful of discrete grave sites, but a city where whole neighborhoods have become mass burial grounds.
1948
Al-Nakba — the catastrophe
The establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948 is accompanied by the expulsion and flight of over 700,000 Palestinians — an event Palestinians call the Nakba. Massacres at Deir Yassin and dozens of other villages result in killings and clandestine burials. Many mass grave sites from this period remain unexcavated, overgrown, or built over. Palestinian villages are depopulated, demolished, and erased from maps.
1967
Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza
Israel captures the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights in the Six-Day War. Military occupation begins. Extrajudicial killings, detention without trial, and enforced disappearances are documented across the occupied territories throughout subsequent decades. Gaza is placed under a blockade following Hamas's takeover in 2007.
1982
Sabra and Shatila massacre
Lebanese Christian militias, operating with Israeli military facilitation, massacre between 800 and 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut. Bodies are found in mass graves across the camp. An Israeli inquiry (the Kahan Commission) finds then-Defence Minister Ariel Sharon bears personal responsibility.
2002
Jenin refugee camp — Operation Defensive Shield
Israeli military operations in the Jenin refugee camp result in the deaths of at least 52 Palestinians and the destruction of large portions of the camp. Initial Palestinian claims of a massacre are disputed, but UN investigators confirm civilian deaths, the bulldozing of residential areas, and restricted forensic access during the operation.
2008–2021
Repeated military operations in Gaza
Operations Cast Lead (2008–2009), Pillar of Defense (2012), Protective Edge (2014), and Guardian of the Walls (2021) kill thousands of Palestinian civilians. Each produces temporary mass casualty events overwhelmingly ordinary cemeteries. UN investigations document disproportionate force and possible war crimes in multiple operations.
October 2023
Hamas attack and start of the current conflict
On October 7, Hamas launches an attack on southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages. Israel declares war and begins sustained bombardment of Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry, UN agencies, and independent investigators document a rapidly escalating civilian death toll and the systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure.
2024
Mass graves confirmed — Nasser Hospital and al-Shifa
Following Israeli military operations at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis and al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, large trenches containing hundreds of bodies are uncovered. Many bodies show signs of execution-style killing. The WHO, UN, and international human rights organisations call for independent forensic investigation. Access for forensic teams remains blocked. The ICJ orders provisional measures against Israel in South Africa's genocide case.
Ongoing
Khthon monitoring — SOCMINT and satellite time-series
Khthon monitors Gaza through satellite time-series analysis of trench digging and rubble disturbance, cross-referenced with geolocated video evidence and eyewitness testimony. The density of destruction makes conventional GEOINT insufficient — entire city blocks function as unrecorded burial grounds. The fate of thousands detained from public spaces remains unknown. Khthon's methodology treats Gaza as an active atrocity crime scene requiring continuous documentation.
Browse Khthon's full catalogue of country and case reports across seven global regions, or get involved with our ongoing investigations.