Medics struggle to save survivors of Israeli massacre in Gaza hospital

Doctors in Gaza City faced with dwindling medical supplies performed surgery on floors, often without anesthesia, in a desperate bid to save badly wounded victims of an Israeli air strike that killed an estimated 500 Palestinians sheltering in the nearby Al Ahli Arab hospital.

Israel continued its air trikes on Gaza on Wednesday, according to Gaza’s interior ministry as outrage grew across the world over what Russia described as a "crime" by Israel.

The strike at the hospital on Tuesday night left gruesome scenes.

Hundreds of Palestinians had taken refuge in the Al Ahli Arab and other hospitals in Gaza City, hoping they would be spared bombardment after Israel ordered all residents of the city and surrounding areas to evacuate to the south of Gaza.

A video that was confirmed was from the hospital showed the hospital grounds strewn with torn bodies, many of them young children, as fire engulfed the building. The grass was strewn with blankets, school backpacks and other belongings.

On Wednesday morning the blast scene was littered with charred cars and the ground was blackened by debris.

Ambulances and private cars rushed some 350 casualties to Gaza City’s main hospital, Al Shifa, which was already overwhelmed with wounded from other strikes, said its director, Mohammed Abu Selmia.

Victims arrived with gruesome injuries, Gaza Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al Qidra said.

Doctors in the overwhelmed hospital resorted to performing surgery on floor and in the halls, mostly without anesthesia.

“We need equipment, we need medicine, we need beds, we need anesthesia, 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 besieged enclave.

The bloodshed unfolded as pressure mounted on Israel to allow the delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals in Gaza, which has been under a complete blockade since Hamas’s October 7 attack ın Israel. Hundreds of thousands of increasingly desperate people were searching for bread and water.

Hamas called Tuesday’s hospital blast “a horrific massacre,” saying it was caused by an Israeli strike.

Before the Al Ahli Hospital deaths, Israeli strikes on Gaza had killed nearly 3,000 people and wounded 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, and nearly two-thirds of those killed were children.

Another 1,200 people across Gaza are believed to be buried under the rubble, alive or dead, health authorities said.

More than 1,400 people in Israel have been killed.

With troops massed along the border, Israel is expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza.

More than one million Palestinians have fled their homes — roughly half of Gaza’s population — and 60 percent are now in the approximately 14-kilometre (8-mile) long area south of the evacuation zone, the UN said.