'Bodies everywhere': Palestinians take stock after Gaza hospital 'massacre'

Palestinians have combed through the debris of the devastated hospital, collecting the bodies of the dead in the battered enclave, hours after an Israeli 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, said, 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 Palestine's Gaza said Israeli air strike killed at least 500 people at Al Ahli Arab Hospital.

At the nearby Shifa hospital in Gaza, 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.

'There were bodies everywhere'

Outside the Al Ahli hospital, others who survived the attack recounted the terrifying moment when the Israeli 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 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."

War of words

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.

Israel's Arab allies blamed it for the hospital deaths, despite the military's denials.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which both established ties with Israel in the Abraham Accords of 2020, condemned the "Israeli" attack.

Morocco, another country that recognised Israel in 2020, also blamed it for the strike, as did Egypt, which became the first Arab country to normalise relations in 1979.

Around 3,400 people have been killed in Gaza as a result of Israeli air strikes, according to health officials.