The bodies of about 80 Palestinians killed by the Israeli army during its ground invasion, have been returned to Gaza and buried in a mass grave at Tel al Sultan Cemetery, according to Anadolu Agency.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza received the bodies on Tuesday through the Israeli-controlled Karem Abu Salem fence crossing in southern Gaza, an Anadolu correspondent reported.

Health workers in plastic robes removed the bodies, which were covered in blue plastic sealed with zip ties, from the truck. The bodies were then brought by a bulldozer for burial in a mass grave.

''The UN had informed us in advance of the arrival of a number of martyrs to the Gaza Strip, estimated to be around 80 bodies,'' Marwan al Hams, the director of Mohammed Yousef El-Najar Hospital in Rafah city, told Anadolu.

"The bodies arrived inside a container, some intact, while others were in pieces, and some others had decomposed,'' he added. Al Hams noted that the bodies were "transferred to the cemetery for burying" and the health and justice ministries would investigate the bodies for possible "war crimes."

The burial images are poignant.