‘Flames devoured everything’: Palestinians describe Israel’s attack on tents in hospital courtyard

“We woke up to a massive fire above our heads,” said one of the survivors of the horrific scene that took place at the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza in the early hours of Monday.

An Israeli airstrike on the hospital compound, located in Deir al-Balah, set the tents of displaced Palestinians inside its courtyard on fire. Huge flames raged for hours before they could be put out, killing four people and injuring over 70 more, many of whom were left in a critical condition.

“We were sleeping safely in our tent at around 1:15 am. We woke up to a huge fire above the tent. I have eight daughters. They all suffered burns and injuries, some of them were taken to the American Hospital, some to the Nasser Medical Complex and some to Aqsa Martyrs Hospital,” Um Mohamed told Mada Masr.

Paalestinians sheltering at the hospital  tried to extinguish the huge fire with small fire extinguishers and buckets of water, but the flames raged for hours before they could be extinguished, destroying the tents and hospital facilities in the yard, eyewitness Jamil Naim told Mada Masr.

“I saw a woman whose entire body was burned. People rescued her, but it was not easy to bring people out of this situation,” Naim said.

Footage from the scene published across social media in the early hours of Monday morning showed fear and horror in the eyes of people in the vicinity of the incident, who were watching and unable to intervene as their neighbors and family members were burned alive in the flames which charred their bodies.

“It is the hardest thing to watch a person burning in front of you and you cannot do anything to save them, because of the intensity of the fire,” Aawni Khattab, who was displaced to the hospital from Wadi al-Salqa, near Gaza’s eastern border, said to Mada Masr.

The fire easily devoured the tents, mostly made of plastic sheets, and everything inside them, according to Khattab. “Our clothes, blankets, mattresses, money, mobile phones — nothing remains. Total destruction,” he added.

Aside from the psychological distress  people experienced , the attack inflicted damage and left infrastructure destroyed in its wake, in a place considered a place of refuge by many who are now left  with even fewer options going forward. "We don't know where to go. There is no safe place in Gaza. We will go to heaven." Khattab said.

 Um Mohmaed mourned the loss of all her family’s belongings in the fire. “Our home is destroyed and winter is approaching. No bed, no food, nothing left for us. How can we cover ourselves in the winter? All our clothes are gone. All I have left are the clothes I’m wearing,” she said.

Heba Rady, whose family was staying in a tent behind the hospital, told Mada Masr that the raging fire was one of the most terrible scenes she witnessed since the start of the war on Gaza. “This is not the first or second terrible scene we see, between one night and the next we see the worst scenes, but this is one of the worst we have seen and lived through. We’ve seen so much bombing, so much destruction before, but we have never seen destruction like this,” she said.

Images from the scene showed extensive damage. At least 20 tents were destroyed, according to a Mada Mast correspondent in the area. 

This is the seventh time that the Israeli military has bombed the Aqsa Martyrs Hospital courtyard since the start of the Israeli aggression on Gaza over a year ago, and the third time within weeks, a statement by the Gaza Government Media Office said.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are currently sheltering in Deir al-Balah, with more displaced to the area as Israeli forces conduct intensive ground operations in the north. The Deir al-Balah region has also been exposed to frequent shelling over recent days, however, including airstrikes which have hit schools and a mosque crowded with Palestinians.