Hundreds of people sheltering in a crowded hospital in Gaza were killed when a rocket struck the building on Tuesday night.
The victims were not just the sick and wounded. Over 3,000 civilians looked for refuge at Al-Ahli hospital, believing it to be a safe haven from the week-long missile onslaught on Gaza from Israel.
Gaza’s health ministry says that at least 500 people were killed in the blast. Many of the victims were women and children.
Ibtihal al-Raii told Al Jazeera she was sitting on the hospital’s second floor with other families and children when the missile struck.
“We saw the light of the missile,” she said. “The next second, we were in hell. The broken glass rained down on us, and I threw myself over the children. We ran outside and saw mutilated bodies, burned bodies, body parts everywhere, underneath our feet. Where is the Arab world?”
As the sun rose over the hospital on Wednesday morning, the devastating impact of last night’s rocket strike was clear.
Burnt-out cars lined the streets nearby. The ground was black from the fire which raged from the blast, and the dead and wounded were still being retrieved from the rubble.
Much of the building had been destroyed. Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a surgeon at the hospital, told the BBC that a ceiling had caved in.
Those wounded in the blast are being rushed to Dar Al Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest medical facility where 40,000 people are already seeking shelter.
Dr Ahmed El Mokhallalati, a senior plastic surgeon at the hospital, has been receiving Al-Ahli’s wounded since Tuesday night.
“Even when you move, you find people on the ground everywhere, people on the corridors,” he told RTÉ’s News at One.
“There is no safe place.”
It remains unclear who fired the devastating missile which struck Al-Ahli. Hamas blamed Israel, while Israel claimed it was a rocket that was misfired by Palestinian militants.
US President Joe Biden, who supports Israel’s war on Hamas, said US intelligence appears to show that the rocket was fired by Islamic Jihad, a militant group based in Gaza.
Compiled by staff writer
Pictured above: The aftermath of the devastating rocket which hit Al-Ahli hospital on Tuesday night.
Image source: X
