Gaza Hospitals Overwhelmed by Hundreds of Injured from Israeli Barrage

Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
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Gaza Hospitals Overwhelmed by Hundreds of Injured from Israeli Barrage

Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed
Mourners react next to the bodies of Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip March 18, 2025. REUTERS/Ramadan Abed

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.

Video obtained by Reuters showed rescue workers 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, Reuters reported.

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 October 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. Israel announced it was cutting off all aid, including medical supplies, into Gaza on March 2 over a dispute with Hamas on the next phase of the deal.

"The entry of all goods and supplies to the Gaza Strip will be halted," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said at the time.

Tuesday morning's airstrikes, which Palestinian health authorities said killed more than 400 people, took place across the tiny, crowded Gaza Strip where the war has left most people homeless.

Israel said it was resuming airstrikes in response to Hamas' rejection of its proposals for extending the ceasefire.

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The World Health Organization spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said 20 of Gaza's 36 hospitals remained partially functional. However, far fewer were still able to handle surgery, aid agencies said. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Khalil Al-Deqran said only seven of the territory's hospitals were still providing services.

Jasarevic said the shortage of medicines meant even in working hospitals medics might not be able to provide treatment.

"The occupation did not allow the entry of medical equipment, devices and very necessary medical consumables to maintain what remains of the health system and functioning hospitals," Gaza hospitals director Mohammed Zaqout said.

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which works with rescue and health services in Gaza, said its team in the territory had reported on Tuesday that medical facilities were overwhelmed.

"The situation is rapidly deteriorating, even before the recent developments, because since the beginning of March we didn't get any other aid, any other medicine," the federation's spokesperson Tommaso Della Longa said.

Even reaching casualties is more difficult because of damage to ambulances and a lack of fuel, said Shaina Low of the Norwegian Refugee Council, which is suspending most operations in Gaza because of the danger from strikes.

"We've already seen the suspension of 20 ambulances in Gaza because of lack of petrol. We're going to see hospitals shutting down," she added.



At Least 7 Sudanese Migrants Found Dead after Being Stranded in Libyan Desert

A view from the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya, where two approximately 7,000-year-old Pastoral Neolithic female individuals were buried, is seen in this handout photo released on April 2, 2025. Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome/Handout via REUTERS
A view from the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya, where two approximately 7,000-year-old Pastoral Neolithic female individuals were buried, is seen in this handout photo released on April 2, 2025. Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome/Handout via REUTERS
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At Least 7 Sudanese Migrants Found Dead after Being Stranded in Libyan Desert

A view from the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya, where two approximately 7,000-year-old Pastoral Neolithic female individuals were buried, is seen in this handout photo released on April 2, 2025. Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome/Handout via REUTERS
A view from the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya, where two approximately 7,000-year-old Pastoral Neolithic female individuals were buried, is seen in this handout photo released on April 2, 2025. Archaeological Mission in the Sahara, Sapienza University of Rome/Handout via REUTERS

At least seven Sudanese migrants were found dead on Friday after their vehicle broke down and left them stranded for days deep in the Libyan desert, according to an ambulance service official.

The car was carrying 34 Sudanese when it broke down some after crossing Libya's border from Chad and onto a deserted path often used by smugglers, Ebrahim Belhassan, director of the Kufra Ambulance and Emergency Services, told The Associated Press.

They were discovered in the sand dunes after 11 days, having run out of food and water, he said.

"The survivors were almost about to die. They are severely dehydrated and exhibiting signs of distress and trauma with such circumstances and given that they’re seeing those around them dying and they know if they will die next,” he said. The 22 rescued, including five children, were transferred to Kufra for further medical checkups.

Five people are missing, but Belhassan said hopes were slim they would survive on foot in a vast desert.

A smuggler who found them alerted emergency crews, Belhassan said.

Libya, which shares borders with six nations and has a long coastline along the Mediterranean, is a main transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East to seek better lives in Europe. The International Organization for Migration estimates around 787,000 migrants and refugees from various nationalities lived in Libya as of 2024.

During last year, the Kufra ambulance service responded to emergencies involving more than 260 Sudanese migrants found in the desert, Belhassan said.