A woman reacts while holding a pillow as she stands amidst debris outside the site of the Ahli Arab hospital in central Gaza on October 18, 2023 in the aftermath of an overnight blast there. (Photo by Mahmud Hams / AFP)
Ambulances and private cars rushed some 350 casualties from al-Ahli Arab Hospital to Gaza City’s main hospital, al-Shifa Hospital, which was already overwhelmed with the wounded from other Israeli air raids, its director Mohammed Abu Selmia said.
Victims arrived with gruesome injuries, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said.
Some were decapitated, disembowelled or with missing limbs.
Doctors in the overwhelmed hospital resorted to performing surgery on floors and in the halls, mostly without anaesthesia.
“We need equipment, we need medicine, we need beds, we need anaesthesia, we need everything,” Abu Selmia told The Associated Press.
