This is a massacre: Gaza takes stock after deadly hospital strike

GAZA CITY, occupied Palestine — Gazans combed through the debris of the devastated hospital, collecting the bodies of the dead in the battered enclave on on Wednesday, hours after a strike killed hundreds sheltering at the facility.

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, told AFP, saying he had collected the eyes, arms, legs and heads of the deceased. “I have never seen anything like this in my life.”

Health authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza said the explosion killed between 200 and 300 people at the the Ahli Arab Hospital.

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 told AFP that around 2,000 people were taking refuge at the hospital on Tuesday 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.”

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.

As residents surveyed the damage, Israel and Palestinian fighters traded blame for the strike.