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Gaza: Doctors and aid workers describe “massacre” as Israeli attacks kill over 400 people overnight

BMJ 2025; 388 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r557 (Published 18 March 2025) Cite this as: BMJ 2025;388:r557
  1. Elisabeth Mahase
  1. The BMJ

Doctors and medical staff in Gaza have recounted the night they endured after Israel launched airstrikes across the strip in the early hours of 18 March, killing at least 400 people and inundating emergency departments with bodies and hundreds of injured people.

Mohammad Qishta, a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) emergency doctor at Nasser Hospital, described the situation as “disastrous,” with his hospital receiving “bodies and parts of bodies, most of them children and women.” He said, “Doctors in the emergency room were crying because of the intensity and the difficulty of the situation.”

Early estimates have placed the death toll from the attacks at around 413 people, including many children. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) has said that the true number is likely much higher, however, as many people remain trapped under rubble.

The airstrikes come amid ongoing …

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