‘The Bodies Were Everywhere’: Doctors In Gaza Recount The Night Israel Killed Hundreds
HuffPost
Israel's ceasefire-breaking airstrikes threw hospitals back into chaos in what the U.N. calls one of the largest single-day child death tolls in the last year.
Warning: This story contains graphic and distressing content throughout.
Doctors and hospitals that were already barely functioning in Gaza have been thrown back into chaos, with Palestinian casualties rapidly climbing as a result of what local health officials say is now the deadliest bombing campaign of Israel’s 17-month offensive.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the slew of airstrikes across Gaza early Tuesday, shattering the fragile ceasefire agreement with Hamas that began two months ago. The strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians overnight, at least 180 of whom were children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
“We received many bodies and body parts, most of them children and women,” Dr. Mohammed Qishta, who was at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said in a recording to Doctors Without Borders, or MSF. “The bodies were everywhere in the emergency room, with complete confusion.”
Qishta is among the many doctors — both Gazan and foreign — who recounted to HuffPost, aid groups and on social media the mass-casualty nightmare they faced this week.
