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autopsies were done and the examination of the bodies was external, including taking3-4 photographs for each case (digital pictures; copies are kept in the office computersin the doctors’ working room); in some cases visible wounds were registered andradiographs taken. In general, the clothes were not completely removed and genitaliawere always covered. After the external examination, the body was partially washedand then given back to the families for burial the same day if possible. The injuredwho had been referred to hospitals outside Gaza and then died were returned byambulance to the Gaza Strip via Erez Crossing and handed over to vehicles in Gazaafter a basic security check by Israeli security authorities, and then underwent thesame process of documentation and identification in Gaza hospitals.There are only 4 forensic doctors in all of the Gaza Strip. The government forensicsdepartment has existed since 1995 and has a staff of 4. It is under the authority ofthe Ministry of Justice, and has been active in the last three or four wars. Authority foraccess to photographs, X-rays and tissue samples resides with the Ministry of Justice.The forensics team at Shifa Hospital includes two doctors and two technicians.According to the information received by the FFM teams, of the more than 2000people killed during the war, about 1500 were examined at Shifa Hospital. The otherswere examined by two other experts who work at two different hospitals in the southof Gaza. Three of the 1500 deceased seen at Shifa Hospital remained unidentified asof 20 August 2014.There is one ‘autopsy’ suite in the morgue at Shifa Hospital, approximately 6x5meters, with two autopsy tables with water and drainage; one technicians’ roomattached to the autopsy room, approximately 3x4 meters; one office for forensicdoctors, approximately 6x6 meters, with 3 desks and two computers; and a privatetoilet attached to the room. The FFM teams observed that the morgue’s refrigerationwas not very effective, possibly due to irregular electric current. There may have beenother rooms in the department but these were not seen by the teams. There is nowaiting room for families of the deceased. Staff, the dead bodies and families enterthe area through the same door. 24Regarding tissue samples, a Ministry of Health official at Shifa Hospital, Dr. Nasser AbuSha’aban, stated that there was no one specifically dedicated to collecting samplesduring this armed conflict. He described the collection as haphazard and oftenunlinked to a particular patient. According to him, the hospitals had encountereddifficulty with documentation during previous Israeli attacks, something they triedto address during this latest conflict. He showed the first FFM team tissue samples,some of which he said had been collected during the current armed conflict, whichhe said are kept in formalin (for tissue samples) or in acetone (for other materialsamples). The team observed that the sample containers with acetone were notsealed properly.24During a visit to the morgue on 11 Sep 2014.24