DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA—Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah is a place of concentrated horror and suffering. There is not a moment of tranquility here. A constant stream of ambulances rush in loaded with casualties—mostly crushed and charred bodies and dismembered children. The wards echo with the screams of mothers. Sobbing toddlers wander the halls looking for family members. Funeral prayers are held every hour, barely keeping up with the rising number of dead.
The hospital morgue is a charnel house—corpses are piled on top of one another. A thin river of blood flows outside, winding beneath the feet of relatives gathered for a final glance at their loved ones. As they carry mangled bodies to try and find an empty grave in the inundated cemetery nearby, their overlapping wails of grief fill the air. Inside, survivors stand bereft against the walls, praying for an end to the carnage—or for an Israeli airstrike to finally kill them and remove them from this place. ….more
