TEHRAN- Medics say at least four Palestinians were burned alive and 40 others sustained severe burn injuries after the Israeli military bombed a tent camp for the displaced in the Gaza Strip.

The death toll is expected to rise with reporters on the ground speaking of many tents burnt that were overpacked with displaced Palestinians in a small space. 

The Israeli airstrike targeted the courtyard of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, in the central part of the besieged Palestinian territory. 

The Gaza Civil Defense stated that the targeting of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital “proves that there is no safe place in Gaza, especially after this bombing caused the tents of displaced persons at the hospital to catch fire in the early hours of Monday.”

Graphic scenes in the aftermath of the Israeli strike show the intensity of the fire, which burned dozens of tents, spreading to the hospital as people struggled to contain the flames. 

The Civil Defense also noted that its workers “attempted to control the fire that broke out, knowing that more than 30 tents began to burn and the flames spread to the hospital.”

Al-Aqsa Hospital was already overwhelmed with the injured from an Israeli attack in nearby Nuseirat. 

At least 28 people were killed, including 15 children and several women, and around 80 others were injured when the Israeli occupation forces struck the al-Mufti school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza with heavy artillery fire. 

Entire families have reportedly lost their lives. 

Dr Mohammed Tahir, a volunteer surgeon, who has been dealing with the carnage after the Israeli attack on al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital told al-Jazeera: “We were inundated. We had women, men, children as young as one year of age dying in front of our eyes.”

Speaking outside the hospital Tahir added:
“Patients with significant high percentage burns, unfortunately, their fate is sealed. They won’t even make it to the ICU. They will die.”

“It’s a horror show here. Honestly, sometimes I feel like this is not real life – that this can go on and this degree of suffering is allowed to happen in this world.”

Targeting a hospital and places designated as safe zones for displaced civilians are war crimes. 

The number of displacement centers bombed by the Israeli occupation regime since October last year has risen to 191.

A statement by the Gaza media office noted that the occupation army committed a new massacre by bombing the al-Mufti School for displaced persons in the Nuseirat camp, despite knowing that the school houses thousands of displaced children and women and that it was not classified as a combat zone.

The statement held the Israeli regime and the administration of the United States “fully responsible” for the ongoing crime of genocide and the continued massacres against civilians in the enclave.

The Israeli military launched attack on the Gaza Strip more than a year ago with the goal of defeating Hamas and returning all the captives. To date, the regime’s occupation army has failed to achieve both its missions. 

The number of Israeli war crimes committed in the enclave has alarmed the international community.