Monday, August 4, 2014

Gaza's dead children are kept in ice cream freezers: UN warns half a million are now homeless, medical supplies are running out and morgues are overflowing

  • United Nations warns medical facilities are 'on the verge of collapse' as almost half of medics are unable to get to work
  • It says a third of all hospitals in Gaza have been damaged and 270,000 people are crammed into 90 UN shelters
  • Officials said missile struck at gates of one such shelter in Rafah, killing 10 people inside and out and injuring 35
  • It is at least the sixth UN facility to be hit and contained 3,000 Palestinians who were sheltering from strikes
  • UN Secretary-General: Strike is 'moral outrage and criminal act' and 'yet another gross violation of humanitarian law'
  • As 27th day of conflict began the death toll stood at more than 1,700 Palestinians and 67 Israelis including 64 soldiers
  • Israel lays blame for civilian deaths with Hamas, saying it stores rockets in civilian areas creating 'human shields'
  • Many tanks withdrew from Gaza Strip amid reports tunnel destruction was complete - but attacks continued
  • British Foreign Secretary declares: 'The situation in Gaza is simply intolerable. We have to get the killing to stop'
  • Israel last night announced a ceasefire from 10am to 5pm local time today to allow humanitarian aid to be brought in


Gaza's morgues are overflowing to such an extent that medics are being forced to pack babies' bodies into ice cream freezers, shocking pictures have revealed.


The United Nations has warned that Gaza's medical facilities are 'on the verge of collapse' with buildings left in ruins and half of medics unable to get to work.


Palestinians say corpses now litter the streets and casualties fill the blood-stained emergency room floors of Gaza's hospitals, a third of which have been damaged in the fighting.

Some children's bodies from the al-Ghol family, which lost nine members, were crammed into a freezer because there was no room for them in the morgue of Rafah.

Israel announced another seven-hour humanitarian truce starting at 10am local time (8am BST) this morning, but Palestinians immediately accused Israel of breaking the ceasefire by bombing a house in Gaza City.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said 15 people were wounded in the strike on a house in Shati camp, mostly women and children.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said she was checking the report.

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WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT
No more room: Babies' bodies have been crammed into an ice cream freezer in Rafah's morgue, which ran out of room for bodies today amid an infrastructure crisis
No more room: Babies' bodies have been crammed into an ice cream freezer in Rafah's morgue, which ran out of room for bodies amid an infrastructure crisis
Some children's bodies from the al-Ghol family, which lost nine members were crammed into a freezer because there was no room for them in the morgue of Rafah
Some children's bodies from the al-Ghol family, which lost nine members were crammed into a freezer because there was no room for them in the morgue of Rafah
The family's bodies were lined up in the back of a cooler truck at first because the hospital's morgue was full in Rafah, a town in Gaza which has been hit relentlessly
The family's bodies were lined up in the back of a cooler truck at first because the hospital's morgue was full in Rafah, a town in Gaza which has been hit relentlessly
Anguish: A relative carries the body of one of the nine members of the al-Ghol family who were killed in a strike early today in Rafah, southern Gaza
Anguish: A relative carries the body of one of the nine members of the al-Ghol family who were killed in a strike early today in Rafah, southern Gaza
Almost half a million people - 460,000 or a quarter of all Gazans - have been displaced with 270,000 crammed into 90 desperately crowded UN shelters, some of which have had no running water for two weeks.
The crisis escalated yesterday after Israel attacked another UN school killing 10 people, many of whom were waiting in line for food handouts, in what the UN Secretary-General called 'yet another gross violation of humanitarian law'.
 


More rockets were also fired towards Israel, intercepted by its defences. The UN has warned Gaza's medical facilities are 'on the verge of collapse' after a third of its hospitals, 14 clinics and 29 ambulances were damaged.
Gaza's ruling group Hamas dismissed today's ceasefire, with a spokesman saying: 'The calm Israel declared is unilateral and aims to divert attention away from the Israeli massacres. We do not trust such a calm and we urge our people to exercise caution.'
Rescue: A wounded boy cries under the rubble of the house in Rafah which was destroyed today in a reported airstrike, killing at least nine members of the same family. The UN says access is effectively blocked to many of its facilities, one of which was hit by a strike this morning, as almost half of Gaza's medics are unable to get to work
Rescue: A wounded boy cries under the rubble of the house in Rafah which was destroyed in a reported airstrike yesterday, killing at least nine members of the same family. The UN says access is effectively blocked to many of its facilities, one of which was hit by a strike yesterday, as almost half of Gaza's medics cannot get to work

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