Israel's sudden airstrikes overwhelm Gaza hospitals

Israel's sudden onslaught of airstrikes overnight overwhelmed Gaza hospitals already reeling from weeks of an aid blockade, medics and health authorities said on Tuesday, as ambulances ferried in hundreds of badly injured survivors.

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Video obtained by Reuters showed rescue work- ers running with stretchers across smoking debris, ambulances rushing to hospitals, a morgue full of bloodied bodies in white bags, and casualties lying outside while relatives mourned the dead.

“We received no less than 400 cases in less than two hours,” said Mohammad Qishta, a Medicins Sans Frontieres emergency doctor working at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.

“There were some serious cases such as burns third degree burns on the face, amputations, wounds on the head, wounds on the chest," he said.

Gaza health authorities issued an urgent statement on Tuesday asking residents to donate blood, saying stocks of different blood types had been exhausted.

Gaza's health system was devastated by Israel's 15-month military campaign, launched in response to the Oct.7 attack by Hamas in 2023, putting many of the territory's hospitals out of action, killing medics and reducing crucial supplies.

Although a ceasefire came into effect in January, talks to transition to a second phase of the agreement stalled in February.