Mourners wept over the bodies of their loved ones with drones buzzing overhead early on Tuesday, as .
The health ministry in Gaza said at least 404 people, including many children, have been killed in the renewed Israeli attacks, adding that the toll is expected to rise as many victims remain under the rubble.
Australian medic Mohammed Mustafa described the scenes inside Gaza’s al-Ahli Hospital on Instagram: ”We’ve worked throughout the entire night. We haven’t stopped. The bombing has been non-stop. We’ve run out of ketamine, we’ve run out of propofol, we’ve run out of all painkillers. “
“We can’t sedate anyone. We can’t give them any analgesia. When we intubate people, they wake up and they’re choking because we have no sedation. There are seven girls getting their legs amputated, no anesthesia,” he said.
“It was just mostly women and children burnt, head to toe, limbs missing, heads missing.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the wave of deadly strikes on Gaza was “only the beginning” of renewed Israeli action in the Palestinian territory.
“Hamas has already felt the strength of our arm in the past 24 hours. And I want to promise you — and them — this is only the beginning,” he said in a televised address.
“Military pressure is essential for the release of additional hostages.”
Responding to the strikes, Hamas accused Israel of going after “defenceless civilians” and overturning the ceasefire agreement, leaving the fate of 59 hostages still held in Gaza uncertain.
‘Bodies and limbs on the ground’
“They opened the fire of hell again on Gaza,” said Ramez al-Amarin, 25, a displaced Palestinian who lives in a tent in the south-east of Gaza City.
“There are bodies and limbs on the ground, and the wounded cannot find any doctor to treat them,” he said.
Amarin said he transported several of his neighbours’ children to hospital but there were no beds for them.
He said he didn’t “expect the war to return because Trump said he doesn’t want wars”.
Israel has vowed to keep fighting until the return of all the hostages. Source: AP / Jehad Alshrafi
‘Gaza is a real hell’
“There is bombing everywhere today. I felt that Gaza is a real hell,” said Jihan Nahhal, 43, a mother living in north-west Gaza City, adding that some of her relatives were wounded or killed in the strikes.
Nahhal said she heard Israeli Air Force planes flying overhead as she prepared her pre-dawn meal — the bombardment came with in which they fast during daylight hours.
“Suddenly, there were huge explosions as if it were the first day of the war,” she said.
“Everywhere there was screaming and fires raging, and most of them were children.”
“It is a real war of extermination,” she said, condemning Israel.
Families in Deir al-Balah inspected the damage to their homes as a woman held a shaken-looking young boy in her arms.
“This is my grandson. He was rescued from under the rubble,” Um Abdullah Masmah said.
Standing amid debris, her neighbour, Eyad Sabah, said he felt like he’d “gone back to square one, back to zero”.
“This night reminded us of the return of war once again,” he said.
“How long will this situation continue?”
Much of Gaza now lies in ruins after Hamas’ 7 October 2023 attack, in which more than 1,200 people, including an estimated 30 children, were killed and over 200 hostages taken, according to the Israeli government.
More than 48,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the health ministry in Gaza.
in the long-standing conflict between Israel and Hamas.
— With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse