Grim Cycle of Death at a Hospital in Gaza

Bodies are moved at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in a file picture taken on November 14 - AFP
Bodies are moved at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in a file picture taken on November 14 - AFP
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Grim Cycle of Death at a Hospital in Gaza

Bodies are moved at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in a file picture taken on November 14 - AFP
Bodies are moved at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis, in a file picture taken on November 14 - AFP

A middle-aged man with a blank, shattered expression walked slowly down a ramp at the hospital, gently cradling in his arms a tiny body wrapped in a white shroud.

After the collapse of a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas, the Nasser hospital's morgue in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, was full once again on Saturday.

A handful of women wept for their own children, while a group of men nearby prayed for the dead.

"My son Mohammed tried to get the women and children out of our tent" at a makeshift camp where they had sheltered inside a school, Jumana Murad said of the 19-year-old.

"But a piece of shrapnel hit him in the head... I saw his brains," she told AFP, before bursting into tears.

The family had left their home in Gaza City after the Israeli army told around 1.1 million people in the north of the Palestinian territory to move to avoid the fighting following Hamas militants' unprecedented October 7 attacks on Israel.

"They tossed out leaflets to tell us 'you will be safe in the south', so we went there," she said.

"My son is dead, my son Mohammed, who was a nice boy, and who listened to me whenever I needed to get something off my chest."

At her side, her daughter Joelle Murad shook in her red embroidered dressing gown, screaming out to God and to anyone in earshot.

"Why was my brother, who had nothing to do with militant groups, killed?" she cried. "What did we do? They want Hamas? What does that have to do with us?"

Men at Nasser hospital -- doctors, medical technicians, victims' loved ones -- brought out the corpses in white body bags.

Families gathered for one last look at the dead, caressing their hair, touching their hands or kissing their faces, sometimes still stained with blood.

To Gazans, the dead are "martyrs", so their bodies are not given the traditional Muslim funeral cleansing.

The bodies are carried out on stretchers, or on long metal trays from the morgue's cold rooms -- where electricity supplies are intermittent to non-existent.

Funerals are carried out quickly, and family members cannot always be reached, but the small crowd in the courtyard paused and gathered before all the bodies, reciting prayers for the dead.

The wrapped remains were loaded into ill-suited civilian vehicles -- ambulances are only for the living -- and taken away to rapidly filling cemeteries.

Behind them, more bodies were coming out of the morgue, one more mother cried for her son and the crowd readied for another funeral prayer.



Israel Defense Minister Katz Says Israel Has Defeated Hezbollah

Israeli outgoing Foreign Minister and new Defense Minister Israel Katz speaks during the Ministerial change ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, 10 November 2024. (EPA)
Israeli outgoing Foreign Minister and new Defense Minister Israel Katz speaks during the Ministerial change ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, 10 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israel Defense Minister Katz Says Israel Has Defeated Hezbollah

Israeli outgoing Foreign Minister and new Defense Minister Israel Katz speaks during the Ministerial change ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, 10 November 2024. (EPA)
Israeli outgoing Foreign Minister and new Defense Minister Israel Katz speaks during the Ministerial change ceremony at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem, 10 November 2024. (EPA)

Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Sunday that his country has defeated Hezbollah and that eliminating its leader Hassan Nasrallah was the crowning achievement.

"Now it is our job to continue to put pressure in order to bring about the fruits of that victory," Katz said during a ceremony at Israel's foreign ministry.

Katz said Israel is not interested in meddling in internal Lebanese politics as Israel has "learned our lessons", but that he hoped an international coalition would capitalize on this opportunity politically and that Lebanon would join other countries in normalizing relations with Israel.