Video obtained by Reuters showed rescue workers running with stretchers across smoking debris, ambulances rushing to hospitals, a morgue full of bloodied bodies in white bags, and casualties lying outside while relatives mourned the dead.

“We received no less than 400 cases in less than two hours,” said Mohammad Qishta, a Medicins Sans Frontieres Emergency Doctor working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

“There were some serious cases such as burns … third degree burns on the face, amputations, wounds on the head, wounds on the chest,” he said.

Gaza health authorities issued an urgent statement on Tuesday asking residents to donate blood, saying stocks of different blood types had been exhausted.

Gaza’s health system was devastated by Israel’s 15-month military campaign, launched in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas in 2023, putting many of the territory’s hospitals out of action, killing medics and reducing crucial supplies.

Although a ceasefire came into effect in January, talks to transition to a second phase of the agreement stalled in February. Israel announced it was cutting off all aid, including medical supplies, into Gaza on March 2 over a dispute with Hamas on the next phase of the deal.

“The entry of all goods and supplies to the Gaza Strip will be halted,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said at the time.

Tuesday morning’s airstrikes, which Palestinian health authorities said killed more than 400 people, took place across the tiny, crowded Gaza Strip where the war has left most people homeless.

Israel said it was resuming airstrikes in response to Hamas’ rejection of its proposals for extending the ceasefire.

--Reuters--