GAZA CITY: Some policemen recited their last prayers as they lay fatally wounded in the wreckage of Israel’s devastating airstrikes.
Others, their limbs torn off by the explosions, shouted defiance.
Nearly half of the 225 people killed were members of Hamas security forces.
“Allahu Akbar,” said one Hamas policeman lying injured next to the bodies of his comrades.
The missiles struck 40 security compounds of Hamas, which controls Gaza Strip. Columns of smoke and dust rose over Gaza City.
Windows were shattered all around. Hospital officials said many of the dead were passersby, including 15 women.
The scale of the bloodshed was unprecedented even in an enclave that is only too used to violent death.
“It is war. Look at the smoke, look at the bodies and the body parts, it is like Afghanistan or Iraq,” said Umm Mohammed as she looked over one flattened Hamas office.
Hundreds of people crowded hospitals looking for their relatives. Many dead remained unidentified as some were headless. Health officials appealed for outside help.
“We lack everything, we lack medical equipment, we lack anesthesia, we lack bandages, we lack fuel for ambulance vehicles, we lack medicine, everything,” cried Muawiyah Hassanein, head of Gaza’s Ambulance and Emergency Department.
Palestinians called it the “Massacre of the Black Saturday.” The Israeli codename for the operation was “Solid Lead.”
As morgues ran out of space, many of the bodies were moved into mosques in the city where people arrived to establish the identities of the dead. Many fell unconscious to the ground after they confirmed the identity of loved ones.
Graves were also in short supply. Some families had to return their dead to hospital after finding no room to bury them.
“Eventually they can retake the Gaza Strip, what else they can do? But will that solve the problem? Of course not,” said Gaza teacher Ahmed Abu Baha.
