The aftermath of the explosion at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza. Dr Fadel Naim said:"We tried to save whoever could be saved but the number was too great for the hospital team." Photograph: Abed Khaled/APThe head of orthopaedic surgery at Al-Ahli al-Arabi Hospital in Gaza, Fadel Naim, had just finished a procedure when he heard a huge explosion and his department filled with people screaming for help.
Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli air strike for the blast. Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied blame. “This place created a safe haven for women and children, those who escaped the Israeli bombing into this hospital, those who saw this place as a safe haven,” said Naqa.
British-Palestinian doctor Ghassan Abusittah said the hospital had been shaking all day because of bombing. He said he heard the sound of a missile just before a huge explosion and then the operating room ceiling collapsed on top of him and other physicians. In the courtyard he could see bodies and limbs everywhere. He treated a man whose legs were blown off.
Israel's military on Wednesday published what it described as evidence that a misfired Palestinian rocket caused the hospital explosion. Hamas said it was an Israeli air strike and an Islamic Jihad spokesman rejected Israeli accusations as “cover to justify carrying out its massacres against Palestinian civilians”.