Hospital staff are reportedly using ice cream vans to store the bodies of dead children killed in Gaza.
Footage has been shared on social media showing vans parked outside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
A man, presumed to be a medical professional, says that because the hospital’s morgues are too small and too narrow, they are unable to accommodate all of the people killed in the area.
As a result, in a heartbreaking development, they had to resort to using ice cream vans to store the bodies of dead children.
The footage comes as thousands of civilians attempt to escape Gaza’s northern area ahead of a potential invasion by Israel.
Speaking in Arabic, the civilian says that the hospital was forced to bring food refrigerators from Al-Awda factories to store the dead.
The children, many of whom have reportedly not been identified, have been stored in these vans outside the hospital.
The man said: “The hospital’s morgues collapsed. The old equipment was insufficient and of poor quality, so the hospital was forced to bring in extra-cold refrigerators in order to store the bodies in them.”
The Mirror reported that in the footage the man opens the door to show the bodies inside the van before calling for support for hospitals in Gaza.
He said: “Health services, corpse preservation services and mortuary services are all weak. The hospital needs support and aid.”
The man’s calls for help echo those of thousands of people still stuck inside Gaza which has been on the receiving end of intense bombardment in recent days.
Speaking to CNN, forensic pathologist Yasser Khatab said some of the bodies were being stored for days before being collected.
He said that Gaza needs “coffins and equipment to deal with dead bodies” as the number of victims threatens to rise further.
Doctors inside Gaza are warning that thousands of people could die in hospitals because of a lack of basic supplies.
Speaking to the Guardian, a regional director at the World Health Organisation Richard Brennan said: “It’s almost as bad as it gets.
“It’s not just the damage, the destruction, it’s that psychological pressure. The constant shelling…the loss of one’s colleagues.”
As the situation worsens, organisations from outside Israel and Gaza have been calling for more to be done to protect civilians from the intense shelling inside the city.
