The Israeli operation to free four hostages in the central Gaza town of Nuseirat triggered heavy aerial bombardments and ground operations on Saturday that killed more than 200 people, according to two hospital officials in the area.
Residents said it was the most violent attack they could remember during the eight-month war. A hospital official said Israel had struck a busy market, and video footage taken immediately after the attack showed bloodied bodies on the ground in what appeared to be a market that had been struck.
Other video footage showed people running for cover as a powerful airstrike exploded near them.
Dr. Khalil Daqran, spokesperson for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, and Marwan Abu Nasser, acting administrative director of Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat, said their two hospitals had received a total of more than 200 deaths. and many injured during Saturday’s attack. Most of those killed were women and children, hospital officials said.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari put the number of casualties at fewer than 100, without specifying whether they were dead, wounded or both.
The New York Times could not independently verify the death toll and it was unclear how many were civilians and how many were Hamas militants.
Hours later, some of the dead had already been buried by their families while others had not yet been claimed, according to Dr Daqran.
“The martyrs who have not yet been identified are still in the morgue. It is difficult to identify them,” he said. “It is difficult to identify them because some of the martyrs who arrived are only limbs torn off from children, women and the elderly. »
Tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of Gaza have fled to Nuseirat in recent weeks to escape Israeli bombing in other parts of the besieged territory, such as the southern town of Rafah, where Israel recently launched a new offensive.
Khaled al-Saadouni, a young man who witnessed the Israeli operation in Nuseirat, told Reuters he saw Israeli special forces arriving in an Apache attack helicopter and also saw a car white with Israeli forces.
“The Apaches started bombing and shooting directly at people,” he said, according to Reuters, adding that there were many dead and wounded. “People fled,” he said.
He said many displaced Palestinians had taken refuge in the attacked area.
“We transported 10 injured people in an ambulance. One of them was shot directly. “We barely made it through the alleys,” he said.
Khitam Awad, a 35-year-old teacher, said she was at home teaching 25 young students and handing out gifts when the Israeli attack began nearby.
“We were close to strikes,” she told the New York Times. “We don’t know how we escaped unscathed.”
The strikes lasted two hours “insanely” and they were unable to leave the house, she added. One of her colleagues, another teacher, later learned that two of her relatives had been killed. They gathered in a room with the students, she said, while around them, houses were being hit.
“We could hear the sound of tanks,” Ms. Awad said. “We were nervous, we didn’t know what was happening around us, bombs, rockets and tanks.”
At Al Aqsa Hospital, the injured and the bodies of those killed filled the rooms and corridors, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
“The situation is catastrophic,” said Dr Daqran. “We don’t have enough beds for all the injured. “We have five times more injured people than hospital beds. »
As a result, many dead and injured people had to be sent to another nearby hospital, Al Awda, in Nuseirat.
“Al Awda Hospital is a maternity ward but it has been transformed to accommodate the injured for whom we have no space at Al Aqsa Hospital,” he said.
Mr. Abu Nasser, acting administrative director of Al-Awda Hospital, said the medical facility’s capacity to hold bodies was limited and that by the end of the day, around 100 bodies were brought to the hospital. The hospital had been taken to be buried by the family. members.
“We are a small hospital,” he said. “We just don’t have the space.”
At a press conference in front of Al Aqsa Hospital, Dr Daqran called on Palestinians in Gaza to donate blood and the international community to help Gaza’s hospitals.
The influx of casualties into hospitals came at a time when the few remaining functioning hospitals in Gaza are struggling to continue operating due to continued Israeli strikes and a lack of medicine, medical equipment and overloaded generators.
Bilal Chbaïr reports contributed.
