Israel launched heavy aerial bombardments and ground operations on Saturday during an operation to rescue four hostages in the central Gaza town of Nuserat, killing more than 200 people, according to two hospital officials in the region.
Local residents said it was the worst attack they could remember during the eight-month war. A hospital official said Israel attacked a busy market and video footage after the attack showed blood-stained bodies on the ground in what appeared to be the market that was attacked.
Other video footage showed people scrambling for cover as powerful airstrikes exploded near them.
Dr. Khalil Daklan, spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir al-Balah, and Marwan Abu Nasser, acting administrative director of Awada Hospital in Nuserat, said their two hospitals had treated a total of More than 200 people died and many were injured in Saturday’s attack. Hospital officials said many of the victims were women and children.
Israeli military spokesman Maj. Gen. Daniel Hagari estimated the number of casualties at less than 100, but did not specify whether they were killed, wounded or both.
The New York Times was unable to independently verify the death toll, and it was unclear how many were civilians and how many were Hamas militants.
Dr Dockland said hours later some of the dead had been buried by family members while others had yet to be claimed.
“The unidentified martyrs are still in the morgue. It is difficult to identify them,” he said. “It was difficult to identify them as some of the martyrs who arrived were nothing more than the body parts of children, women and the elderly.”
Tens of thousands of Palestinian residents of Gaza have fled to Nuserat in recent weeks to escape Israeli bombing of other parts of the war-torn region, such as the southern city of Rafah, where Israel recently launched a new offensive.
Khalid Saduni, a young man who witnessed Israeli operations in Nuserat, told Reuters he saw Israeli special forces arriving in Apache attack helicopters and Israeli troops in a white car.
“The Apaches started direct bombings and firing on people,” he said, according to Reuters, adding that many people were killed and injured. “People fled,” he said.
He said there were many displaced Palestinians taking refuge in areas under attack.
“We transported 10 injured people in an ambulance. One of them was hit directly. We barely made it through the alley,” he said.
Khitam Awad, a 35-year-old teacher, said she was teaching 25 young students at her home and handing out gifts when an Israeli attack began nearby.
“We’re right next to the strike,” she told The New York Times. “We don’t know how we escaped unscathed.”
She added that the strike lasted for two hours in a “frantic manner” and they were unable to leave the house. One of her colleagues, another teacher, later discovered that two of her relatives had been killed. She said they were huddled in a room with students while homes around them were being attacked.
“We heard the sound of tanks,” Ms. Awad said. “Our nerves are on edge, we don’t know what’s going on around us, bombs, rockets and tanks.”
At Al-Aqsa Hospital, wards and corridors were filled with the bodies of the wounded and dead, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
“The situation is catastrophic,” Dr. Dockland said. “We don’t have enough beds for all the injured. We have five times as many injured people as there are hospital beds.
As a result, many of the dead and injured had to be transported to another nearby hospital, Al Awda in Nuserat.
“Awada Hospital is a maternity and gynecological hospital, but it has been converted to receive the wounded that Al-Aqsa Hospital does not have space for,” he said.
Mr Abu Nasser, acting administrative director of Al-Awda Hospital, said the medical facility had limited capacity to accommodate corpses and by the end of the day, about 100 corpses brought to the hospital had been taken away by family members to bury members.
“We’re a small hospital,” he said. “We just don’t have the space.”
At a press conference outside Al-Aqsa Hospital, Dr. Dachlan called on Palestinians in Gaza to donate blood and called on the international community to help Gaza hospitals.
The influx of victims comes as Gaza’s few remaining operating hospitals struggle to stay afloat due to ongoing Israeli attacks and a lack of medicines, medical equipment and overloaded generators.
Pilar Speyer Contributed reporting.
