Palestinian health officials now say that at least 471 people were killed by an explosion at a hospital in Gaza City on Tuesday night. They blame an Israeli air strike, but Israel’s military says the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The BBC’s Rushdi Abu Alouf visited the scene and found that body parts are still being collected.
Blood-soaked mattresses are strewn across the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Arab hospital, along with clothing and personal possessions left behind in the chaos that followed the blast and the huge fire it caused.
In a nearby car park lie the smouldering wrecks of more than a dozen cars.
The surrounding buildings are also damaged, apparently pockmarked by shrapnel. But no large impact crater is visible.
There is an atmosphere of panic, with people struggling to understand what happened at a place that was supposed to be protected under international humanitarian law.
“We left our home to come here,” a woman who survived the explosion told the BBC. “We thought it would be safe, but then it got bombed.”
