As the Israel-Hamas war continues to escalate, a doctor based in Gaza revealed a horrifying ordeal of the time when he was working in the operation theatre and the entire ceiling of the operation theatre fell on them after the hospital was hit by a deadly explosion on Tuesday night. Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah, a plastic surgeon from London, said that parts of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City were on fire.

“I was in the operating room when the missile struck and the full ceiling of the operating cell fell on us. There were amputated parts. There were people with primary amputations,” he told the BBC.

He added, “40% of all the cases that I’ve seen have been children. A lot of them have been like this, they have lost one or two parents. And unfortunately, these kids have a long, long recovery road in front of them.”

Describing the scene as a “massacre”, he stated, “There’s broken glass everywhere, there are lots of people who are seeking refuge in the hospital.”

The surgeon further informed that water pressure was currently too low to power some of the equipment and that resources were running out quickly.

A strike on the Gaza hospital compound which health officials there said killed at least 500 people, on Tuesday, has sparked outrage around the globe. While the Palestine group Hamas has blamed Israel for the deadly strike, the Israeli Army said the hospital was hit by a rocket misfired by Islamic Jihad, an ally of the Hamas group. Following the hospital bombing, US President Joe Biden, who arrived in Israel that day, spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I am outraged and deeply saddened by the explosion at the Al-Ahli Arab hospital in Gaza and the terrible loss of life that resulted,” Biden said in a statement.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) termed the hospital strike as “unprecedented in its scale”, adding that 115 healthcare facilities in Gaza have been attacked, leaving most of the city’s hospitals out of operation.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will travel to Israel on Thursday before heading to other countries in the region in an effort to deescalate the Israel-Gaza conflict, his office has said.

“The attack on Al Ahli Hospital should be a watershed moment for leaders in the region and across the world to come together to avoid further dangerous escalation of conflict,” Mr. Sunak said in a statement.

“I will ensure the U.K. is at the forefront of this effort.”

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Mr. Sunak will stress the international community must “not let Hamas’ barbaric terrorism and disregard for human life become a catalyst for further escalation of conflict in the region”, the statement said.

Expected in Israel early on Thursday morning, Mr. Sunak is due to meet his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

He is also expected to insist that humanitarian aid, which London recently announced would be increased for the Palestinians, be allowed to arrive at a time when Israel has authorised the entry of aid into Gaza from Egypt, and that Britons stranded in Gaza be allowed to leave.

Alongside the British prime minister’s trip, his Foreign Secretary James Cleverly is due to visit Egypt, Turkey and Qatar “in the coming days”, according to Downing Street.

London has pledged its support for Israel following the bloody attacks by Hamas, which killed more than 1,400 people, and has announced that the U.K.’s humanitarian aid to the Palestinians will be increased by a third — an extra £10 million pounds ($12 million).

Israel is relentlessly bombing the small, crowded territory of Gaza, where more than 3,400 people have been killed, most of them Palestinian civilians, according to the local authorities.