Hospitals in Gaza Overwhelmed as Attacks Continue

RAFAH, Gaza Strip — It was clear from the bodies laid out in the parking lot of the maternity hospital here that it had assumed new duties: No longer a place that welcomed new life, it was now a makeshift morgue.

Other bodies lay in hallways and on the floor of the kitchen at Hilal Emirati Maternity Hospital. In the walk-in cooler, they were stacked three high, waiting for relatives to claim them for burial.

Saturday was the second day of heavy bombardment by Israeli forces on this city on Gaza’s border with Egypt after Israel’s announcement that one of its officers had been captured by Palestinian militants here during a clash.

After two days of Israeli shelling and airstrikes, central Rafah appeared deserted on Saturday, with shops closed and residents hiding in their homes. The presence of Israeli forces east of the city had caused many to flee west, crowding in with friends and relatives in neighborhoods by the Mediterranean.

More than 120 Palestinians were killed in Rafah alone on Friday and Saturday — the deadliest two days in the city since the war began 25 days ago. Those deaths, and hundreds of injuries, overwhelmed the city’s health care facilities.

The aggression here is creating a new generation of youth who want revenge for all the crimes,” he said.

He had looked at the central hospital the day before, to no avail. Then, on Saturday, he received a message sent to local cellphones telling those who had lost relatives to retrieve them from the maternity hospital. He had come right away, but had not found them.

“I’ll keep waiting for their bodies to come in so we can take them home and bury them,” he said.

Mr. Banna added that he had been too worried to tell his wife what had happened to her family and wanted to break the news to her gradually. Earlier that day, she had told him that she was starting to worry because her father’s cellphone had been switched off all day.

“I told her maybe he has no electricity and his phone is dead,” Mr. Banna said.