The morgue at Gaza鈥檚 biggest hospital is overflowing as Israeli attacks intensify

People stand by the bodies of victims of Israeli air strikes outside the morgue of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on October 12, 2023. (AFP)
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  • 鈥淭he body bags started and just kept coming and coming and now it鈥檚 a graveyard,鈥� nurse says

GAZA CITY: The morgue at Gaza鈥檚 biggest hospital overflowed Thursday as bodies came in faster than relatives could claim them on the sixth day of Israel鈥檚 heavy aerial bombardment on the territory of 2.3 million people.
With scores of Palestinians killed each day in the Israeli onslaught after an unprecedented Hamas attack, medics in the besieged enclave said they ran out of places to put remains pulled from the latest strikes or recovered from under the ruins of demolished buildings.
The morgue at Gaza City鈥檚 Shifa hospital can only handle some 30 bodies at a time, and workers had to stack corpses three high outside the walk-in cooler and put dozens more, side by side, in the parking lot.
鈥淭he body bags started and just kept coming and coming and now it鈥檚 a graveyard,鈥� Abu Elias Shobaki, a nurse at Shifa, said of the parking lot. 鈥淚 am emotionally, physically exhausted. I just have to stop myself from thinking about how much worse it will get.鈥�

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Nearly a week after Hamas militants crossed through Israel鈥檚 highly fortified separation fence and killed over 1,200 Israelis in a brutal rampage, Israel is preparing for a possible ground invasion of Gaza for the first time in nearly a decade. A ground offensive would likely drive up the Palestinian death toll, which already has outpaced the past four bloody wars between Israel and Hamas.
Already, the sheer volume of human remains has pushed the system to its limit in the long-blockaded territory. Gaza鈥檚 hospitals are poorly supplied in quiet times but now Israel has stopped the water flow from its national water company and blocked even electricity, food and fuel from entering the coastal enclave.
鈥淲e are in a critical situation,鈥� said Ashraf Al-Qidra, the spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry. 鈥淎mbulances can鈥檛 get to the wounded, the wounded can鈥檛 get to intensive care, the dead can鈥檛 get to the morgue.鈥�
Lines of white body bags 鈥� soles of bare feet sticking out from one, a bloodied arm from another 鈥� brought the scale and intensity of Israel鈥檚 retaliation on Gaza into sharp relief.
Israel鈥檚 campaign on Gaza has leveled entire neighborhoods, killing over 1,400 people 鈥� over 60 percent of them women and minors, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. More than 340,000 have been displaced, or 15 percent of Gaza鈥檚 population.
The Israeli military says it is striking Hamas militant infrastructure and aims to avoid civilian casualties 鈥� a claim that Palestinians reject.
Those deaths, and over 6,000 injuries, have overwhelmed Gaza鈥檚 health care facilities as supplies dwindle.
鈥淚t is not possible, under any circumstances, to continue this work,鈥� said Mohammad Abu Selim, the general director of Shifa. 鈥淭he patients are now on the streets. The wounded are on the streets. We cannot find a bed for them.鈥�
After the heavy bombing of the Shati refugee camp just north of Gaza City along the Mediterranean coast on Thursday, a new wave of people streamed into the hospital complex 鈥� toddlers with bruises and bandages, men with makeshift tourniquets, young girls with blood caked on their faces. Because Shifa鈥檚 intensive care unit was full, some of the wounded lay in the hospital corridors, pressing up against the walls to clear aisles for staff and stretchers.
Making matters worse, Gaza鈥檚 sole power plant ran out of fuel on Wednesday. Shifa and other hospitals are desperately trying to save whatever diesel remains in their backup generators, turning off the lights in all hospital departments but the most essential 鈥� intensive care, operating rooms, oxygen stations.
Abu Selima, director of Shifa, said the last of the hospital鈥檚 fuel would run out in three or four days.
When that happens, 鈥渁 disaster will occur within five minutes,鈥� said Naser Bolbol, head of the hospital鈥檚 nursery department, citing all the oxygen equipment keeping infants alive.
Hospital authorities said there wouldn鈥檛 be electricity left to refrigerate the dead, either.