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A senior UNRWA official said he “witnessed some of the most horrific scenes” he has seen during his nine months in Gaza, when visiting the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in the aftermath of an Israeli strike that killed at least 90 people on Saturday.
Israel had designated the area a “safe zone” but said it carried out the strikes to target senior Hamas commander Mohammed Deif. The group says that Deif is still alive.
The attack has drawn widespread condemnation and threatened to overwhelm the Nasser Medical Complex with wounded Palestinians.
“I saw toddlers who are double amputees, children paralysed and unable to receive treatment and others separated from their parents,” director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza Scott Anderson said on his visit to the hospital.
“I also saw mothers and fathers who were unsure if their children were alive. Parents told me in despair that they had moved into the ‘so-called humanitarian zone’ in the hope that their children would be safe there,” he added.
The hospital admitted more than 100 people wounded in Saturday's attack, he said.
Patients were being treated on the ground without disinfectants, as there were not enough supplies or beds, he said.
“Ventilation systems were switched off due to a lack of electricity and fuel, and the air was filled with the smell of blood.”
The director of the hospital said that the hospital, which is the only one still operating in southern Gaza, did not have enough beds for the wounded.
“The hospital is full of patients, it's full of wounded, we can't find beds for people,” said Atef Al Hout.
Fayez Al Sheikh Yousif, was displaced from Rafah to Al Mawasi, where he rented a piece of land, built a tent and a bathroom, after Israeli forces deemed it safe. He was in his tent when he heard explosions nearby.
“My neighbours became martyrs. Wherever you looked, you saw people on the ground,” Mr Yousif told The National.
“I tried to protect my son by taking cover on the ground and shielding him with my body, resulting in shrapnel in my back. My mother’s shoulder was also broken in the attack.”
He recalls witnessing things he had never seen before.
“Dismembered bodies were everywhere.”
Nidal Al Ghoul, a rescue worker, was about 20 metres away from the shelling when it happened. He rushed to assist people in need.
“I was confused about where to start and who to help first. I tried my best and attempted to rescue eight people, but unfortunately, they died,” he said.
Ambulances kept working to evacuate and transport the injured and dead for about two hours, he said.
Fayza Ahmed was also in her tent when the attack happened.
She initially thought the explosions were far away. Then, her tent collapsed.
“I was suffocated and tried to signal the people who came to rescue me by raising my hand from under the tent,” she told The National.
“I don't know how I was rescued or how they pulled me out from under the tent. My son also got injured, and my hand is broken.”
After having lost her home in Rafah, Ms Ahmed's tent has become unsuitable to live in.
“After I came back, I found shrapnel everywhere. If any of that shrapnel had hit us, it could have killed us,” she added.
Um Sameer Al Skeikh Yousif, in her 80s, fled from Gaza city to Nusairat to Rafah and then to Mawasi in Khan Younis.
“What happened to us yesterday is unimaginable. I have lived through many wars, but I have never witnessed anything like this. Now, where should we go? We are civilians and we need to be protected,” Um Sameer told The National.
“We pulled my grandson out of a large hole. He is only six months old. We tried our best to get him out before he suffocated from the sand.”
Israeli forces killed at least 141 people and wounded 400 others in four separate attacks in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the Ministry of Health said.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that his government had “no certainty” the strikes on Al Mawasi had killed their apparent target Deif, whose real name is Mohammed Diab Al Masri.
“Israel attacked Gaza today in an attempt to eliminate Mohammed Deif and his deputy, Rafa Salama,” Mr Netanyahu told a press conference hours after the attack.
“There is no certainty that the two were eliminated,” he added.
Hamas denied Deif had been killed and said he was “mocking” the Israelis after the attack.
It said that Israel had used its targeting of Deif to “justify the horrifying massacre”.
More than 38,000 Palestinians, the majority civilians, have been killed in more than nine months of war.
