“We were performing surgery at the Baptist hospital when a strong explosion occurred and the ceiling fell on the operating room…This is a massacre,” Ghassan Abu Sitta, a doctor associated with Doctors Without Borders, said during the briefing, according to an Anadolu correspondent.
A photo circulating of the press conference shows members of the medical staff standing between covered corpses. One of the medical staff was holding the dead body of an infant and another was carrying the corpse of a girl.
Earlier Tuesday, a spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry, Ashraf Al-Qudra, told Anadolu that “more than 500 Palestinians were killed during an Israeli bombing that targeted the vicinity of the National Arab (Baptist) Hospital in Gaza.”
Some of the victims had already fled to the hospital and its surroundings to find refuge following warnings and calls from the Israeli army to evacuate their homes.
An Israeli army spokesman said that “all the details are not yet available” about what happened at the hospital, according to the state broadcasting authority.
The bombing of the hospital drew strong condemnation in many capitals and calls for providing international protection for the Palestinian people under Israeli occupation.
The airstrike came on day 11 of the current conflict, with a growing international chorus of non-governmental groups and world leaders saying the Israeli bombing campaign on the besieged Gaza Strip – including healthcare facilities, homes and houses of worship – violates international law and may constitute a war crime.