'It's a miracle we survived,' says father of 5 whose home was destroyed in Israeli hostage rescue raid
'We are innocent. We want to live in dignity. We want to live in peace,' said Ismail Alyan
Mementos from better days lay strewn on the floor of Ismail Alyan's family apartment on Monday, with one wall blown out completely. He held a frayed broom and stood stunned, watching as rescue workers assessed damage to the home he said took 30 years to build in central Gaza's Nuseirat neighbourhood.
"We have nothing to do with Hamas. We have nothing to do with the Israeli war matter. We are civilians," Alyan said.
"We are innocent. We want to live in dignity. We want to live in peace."
Alyan's home was among those destroyed by an intense Israeli air assault and hostage rescue operation Saturday in Nuseirat, a dense and dangerous area during the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Israel rescued four hostages Hamas had held since October during the operation, which Palestinian officials said killed at least 274 people and injured 698 more in the central area of the Gaza Strip.
According to Gaza's health ministry, 64 of the dead were children and 57 were women. Officials in Israel and Gaza did not distinguish between civilians and combatants killed.
Roughly six kilometres south of the attack, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al Balah was overflowing Monday with injured Palestinians.
Blood-stained floors, agonizing screams and a sense of panic were rampant as family, friends and staff carried patients through the halls.
Dr. Mahmoud Abu Youssef made the rounds trying to maintain control of the hundreds of patients and their families waiting for answers. Many waited on the floor.
"It's a very bad situation here," he told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife. "Al Nuseirat is a witness to a lot of injury … a lot of death."
Hospital overwhelmed
Youssef said the hospital was already stretched beyond its limits due to the ongoing war and could not handle the influx. On Monday, family members of patients held up IV drips to keep the medicine flowing because there weren't enough stands available.
"We placed the injured along the internal corridors and in between beds. There is no room at all inside this hospital for the injured. We had them sleep in external tents," Dr. Khalil al-Dakran told Reuters.
After the influx, he said there were now four or five times more injured people at the hospital than there were beds for them to use
An Israeli military spokesperson said the operation Saturday took place in the middle of a residential neighbourhood in Nuseirat because Israel had intelligence Hamas was keeping hostages in two apartment blocks.
Alyan was eating breakfast with his wife and five children in their apartment in Nuseirat when the raid began.
"We were surprised by aircrafts … they bombed us … Then special forces came and started to shoot at us," he said.
"It was a miracle we survived."
Hamas claims some hostages killed in raid
In a message posted to Hamas's Telegram channel on Saturday, spokesperson Abu Ubaida called the Israeli raid "a complex war crime" that also left some Israeli hostages dead.
"The operation will pose a great danger on the enemy's prisoners and will have a negative impact on their conditions and lives," he wrote.
An Israeli military spokesperson later dismissed the assertion that the operation killed hostages as a "blatant lie."
Israel's military said an Israeli special forces commander was killed in exchanges of fire with militants emerging from cover in residential blocks. It said it knew of "under 100" Palestinians killed, but had not determined how many of them were fighters or civilians.
U.S. President Joe Biden welcomed the return of the four rescued Israeli hostages rescued in Gaza.
"We won't stop working until all the hostages come home and a ceasefire is reached," Biden said at a news conference in Paris alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was relieved to see the hostages return home, but said in a post on X that the civilian deaths were "appalling."
Israel launched its siege on the enclave after the Hamas-led militant attack on Oct. 7 killed around 1,200 people, with another 250 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies. Roughly half those hostages were freed during a brief November truce. Israel's responding assault on Gaza has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry.
Standing in the remains of his home in Nuseirat, Alyan implored international leaders to stop supporting the war.
"You are sending bombs to Israel to kill us and our children," he said. "Please tell me why they come and kill us."
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With files from CBC's Rhianna Schmunk and Reuters