A gruesome video shows the utter destruction caused to Gaza’s largest hospital last night, with blood-soaked sheets covering the sea of victims of a violent explosion, while witnesses say the “smell of bodies” now hangs in the air.
Hundreds were killed when a huge fireball, described as an ‘inferno’, ripped through Gaza City’s al-Ahli Arab Hospital at 7pm on Tuesday evening, leaving a carnage in its wake.
The source of the explosion remains aggressively disputed, with a blame game erupting between Hamas and Israel as the terrorists claim it was the result of an Israeli airstrike, while the IDF blames Islamic Jihad militants for a misfire.
A heavily muzzled video has now emerged showing bodies piling up outside the hospital, some barely covered in darkness as war-torn Gaza runs out of body bags.
MailOnline chooses to show the graphic images, also shared by the BBC and other media, to show the extent of the devastation at the hospital, where Palestine claims at least 500 people were killed last night.
Today, devastated and shocked family members are forced to sift through the piles of bodies to try to identify their loved ones, and traumatized health workers have had no choice but to continue treating the patients left behind.
*** WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT ***
A heavily muzzled video has now emerged showing bodies piling up outside the hospital
Victims of last night’s massive blast had to be brought out as overcrowded hospital continues to deal with patients
Dozens of cloth-wrapped bodies filled the hospital floor in the aftermath of the devastating attack
Footage shared by the BBC and other media shows the ground covered in corpses, while Palestine claims at least 500 people were killed in the blast.
Blood-soaked sheets cover the victims of a violent explosion that night
Stunned crowds have gathered to witness the unconscionable destruction of the health facility
People gather to mourn the dozens of victims of last night’s hospital attack
In the photo: the burning hospital building after Tuesday evening’s strike
Many more people are now suffering even more horrific injuries, while the already stretched hospital is now overwhelmed with even more people injured by the blast.
“They are all in a terrible situation,” said Mohammed Abu Selmia.
“A young woman who had her limbs amputated, a child whose intestines came out, many others have had limb amputations, bleeding in the brain, bleeding in the liver and spleen.”
Ghassan Abu Sittah, a doctor from the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) who was treating patients when the explosion struck, said: “We were operating in the hospital. There was a strong explosion and the ceiling fell on the operating room.”
“Hospitals are not targets,” he said. ‘This bloodshed must stop. Enough is enough.’
Meanwhile, other medics and local people have been photographed scouring the area around the hospital for more bodies, with the death toll possibly rising further.
‘There are bodies on the street. Buildings are falling on their inhabitants,” said Jamil Abdullah, a Palestinian-Swede, hoping to escape the blockaded enclave.
“The smell of the dead is everywhere.”
According to observers there, Gaza’s body bags have been used up, while the corpses filling the hospital floors must be shrouded in other materials.
The carnage is also clearly visible in the chapel of the Christian-run hospital, where couches and other objects are thrown away by the force of the blast.
Children sit in the back of an ambulance at Shifa hospital after a massive explosion, which Palestine blames on Israeli airstrikes, ripped through the facility
A woman reacts while holding a pillow as she stands among the rubble outside the Ahli Arab hospital grounds
For 11 days, Israel has launched devastating attacks on Hamas-controlled Gaza – in retaliation for the killing of 1,400 people who were shot, maimed or burned in shocking cross-border attacks launched by Hamas on October 7.
Despite uncertainty about the cause of the explosion at the Christian-run Ahli Arab Hospital, there was swift and widespread international condemnation.
Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said that “responsibility for this crime must be clearly established” and that the “perpetrators must be held to account.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” and warned Israel against “the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.”
An injured man is taken to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after he was injured in an explosion at al-Ahli Hospital on Tuesday
The scene of destruction at Al Ahli Hospital after an explosion in Gaza City on Tuesday. Israel and Hamas terrorists have blamed each other for the explosion
From Tripoli to Tehran there was an angry reaction in the Muslim world.
Protesters in Jordan – home to millions of Palestinian refugees – attempted to storm the Israeli embassy.
In Lebanon, demonstrators clashed with security forces outside the US embassy. Stones were thrown and a building was set on fire.
The US State Department authorized the departure of “some non-emergency” staff from the embassy in Beirut, citing the “unpredictable security situation.”
Hezbollah, Lebanon’s powerful Iran-backed militant group, vowed a “day of rage” on Wednesday.
People inspect the area of Al-Ahli Hospital where hundreds of Palestinians were killed in an explosion that Israeli and Palestinian officials blamed on each other on Wednesday
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 2,778 Palestinians were killed and 9,700 injured. That was before the explosion at al-Ahli Arab Hospital on Tuesday evening.
Another 1,200 people in Gaza are believed to be buried under rubble, alive or dead. Israel says more than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel and at least 199 others, including children, have been captured by Hamas and taken to Gaza.
The intensification of bombing near towns in southern Gaza, where Israel had ordered civilians to take refuge, is unsettling people who gathered there.
Thousands of people trying to flee Gaza have gathered in Rafah, which has the area’s only border crossing with Egypt. Mediators are pushing for an agreement to let aid in and refugees with foreign passports out.