SEARCHES ARE UNDERWAY at the site of a hospital in Gaza following a strike that health authorities have said killed hundreds sheltering at the facility.
Gazans combed through debris at the al-Ahli Hospital, collecting the bodies of the dead in the battered enclave hours after the blast.
As residents surveyed the damage, Israel and Palestinian militants traded blame for the strike.
Alongside rows of charred vehicles, volunteers recovered corpses and human limbs that were placed in body bags, while the remains of others were covered in white shrouds and blankets.
“This is a massacre,” Ahmed Tafesh, who assisted in the recovery effort, said, adding that he had collected the eyes, arms, legs and heads of the deceased. “I have never seen anything like this in my life.”
At the nearby Shifa hospital in Gaza City, residents gathered to identify the dead at the hospital’s mortuary and take other bodies for burial.
Yahya Karim, 70, was among those searching for clues about the fate of their relatives.
“I don’t know how many of them died and how many are still alive,” said Karim, admitting that he had planned to shelter in the hospital before the strike.
Outside the Ahli hospital, others who survived the attack who spoke to AFP recounted the terrifying moment when the strike occurred.
“We felt there was fire and things were falling on us. We started looking for each other. The electricity cut suddenly, and we couldn’t see,” said Fatima Saed through tears.
“I don’t know how we came out of it.”
Gaza resident Adnan al-Naqa said that around 2,000 people were taking refuge at the hospital last night at the time of the strike.
“As I entered the hospital, I heard the explosion, I saw a massive fire,” said Naqa.
“The entire square was on fire, there were bodies everywhere, children, women and elderly people.”
Doctors in Gaza City, faced with dwindling medical supplies, are trying to save severely injured victims of the explosion.
Video that the Associated Press confirmed was from the hospital showed the hospital grounds strewn with bodies, many of them young children, as fire engulfed the building. The grass was strewn with blankets, school backpacks and other belongings.
Ambulances and private cars rushed some 350 casualties to Shifa hospital, which was already overwhelmed with wounded from other strikes, said its director, Mohammed Abu Selmia.
Victims arrived with terrible injuries, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said.
Doctors in the overwhelmed hospital resorted to performing surgery on floors and in corridors, mostly without anaesthesia.
“We need equipment, we need medicine, we need beds, we need anaesthesia, we need everything,” Abu Selmia said.
He warned that fuel for the hospital’s generators would run out within hours, forcing a complete shutdown, unless supplies enter the Gaza Strip.
Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged against any attacks on healthcare centres.
“We call … at a minimum to stop any attacks on healthcare facilities,” the head of the WHO’s European branch, Hans Kluge, told AFP in an interview, listing it as a top priority.
“Number two (is) to protect civilians and children, and number three (is) to get humanitarian access from Rafah inside Gaza, because all our supplies are based there already but there is no border opening yet,” he said.
Kluge said the WHO was “very, very worried” about the situation, adding that “the only solution is to stop the fighting”.
He called for “a negotiated peace that ensures the right to health for everyone.”
“Our motto is Health for All, both for the Israeli people, and the Palestinian people.”
In a statement following the attack, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said it was “horrified” by the bombing.
“Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed. This is a massacre. It is absolutely unacceptable,” it said.
“We were operating in the hospital, there was a strong explosion, and the ceiling fell on the operating room. This is a massacre,” Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah, an MSF doctor in Gaza, said.
MSF said that nothing justifies the “shocking attack” on the hospital and its patients and health workers, as well as the people who sought shelter there.
“Hospitals are not a target. This bloodshed must stop. Enough is enough.”
With water and food supplies running low, the United Nations estimates that around one million of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents are currently displaced, with thousands sheltering in hospitals dotted throughout the densely populated enclave.
Meanwhile, Israeli air strikes continued to batter the war-torn enclave, sending residents running for cover early today.
For 12 days, Israel has carried out a withering bombardment of Gaza in retaliation for the killing of 1,400 people who were shot, mutilated or burnt to death in shock cross-border attacks launched by Hamas on 7 October.
Around 3,000 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli air strikes, according to health officials.
At the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, truckloads of aid have been waiting to enter for more than a day.
© AFP 2023, with reporting from Jane Moore and Press Association
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