Relatives grieving as they look for loved ones at morgue in Gaza following overnight airstrike

(24 Oct 2023) RESTRICTION SUMMARY: CLIENTS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS IMAGES OF DEAD BODIES AND RELATIVES MOURNING ASSOCIATED PRESS Khan Younis - 24 October 2023 1. Various of woman with her dead son, touching his face, putting blood on her face 2. Mid of people gathered behind fence, body bags on ground 3. Men bringing dead bodies in body bags outside hospital morgue 4. Pan of body bags 5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Osama al- Bashity, relative of people killed in airstrike: “My sister is married and from the Butta Family and the Saqallah family and came from Gaza to stay with their sister at Qarrarah (east of Khan Younis). They have been targeted while they were secure and safe at their homes. They became pieces, may God revenge, we could hardly recognize anybody. We knew them by what trousers or which t-shirt they were wearing. They were in pieces.“ 6. Man opening body bag CONTAINS SHOT OF DEAD BODY 7. Mid of body bags 8. Various of people behind fence crying 9. Men bringing out bodies in body bags 10. Various of body bags 11. Various of men bringing out body bags 12. Various of men bringing the dead in body bags outside hospital morgue 13. SOUNDBITE (English) Ammar al-Butta, survivor of airstrike: “We were hosting our relatives from Gaza and the northern cities from Saqallah family. They were sheltering at our home because we thought that our area will be the safest but apparently it’s not, apparently it’s not safe. There is no safe (place) in (the) Gaza Strip, they are bombing everywhere. So we were hosting them, our relatives, we had maybe more than a 100 people in our building.“ 14. Various of people carrying bodies out of morgue STORYLINE: An overnight Israeli airstrike hit a four-storey residential building in the city of Khan Younis, killing at least 32 people and wounding scores more, according to survivors. The fatalities included 13 from the Saqallah family in the Qarraha area, east of Khan Younis, said Ammar al-Butta, a relative who survived the airstrike. He said about 100 people, including his family and many others, had sheltered there. The victims were taken to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Footage showed about a dozen bodies in white body bags lying on the ground outside the main gate of the hospital. One woman was weeping while another tried to console her. “We were hosting our relatives from Gaza and the northern cities,” al-Butta said, speaking from the hospital. “They were sheltering at our home because we thought that our area will be the safest but apparently it’s is no safe (place) in (the) Gaza Strip,“ he added. Osama al-Bashity, another relative, said they couldn’t recognize the dead. “We could hardly recognize any body. We knew them by what trousers or which t-shirt they were wearing,” he said. Israel has escalated its bombardment of targets in the Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday, ahead of an expected ground invasion against Hamas militants. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip blew through Israel’s highly fortified separation wall on October 7, and attacked an open-air music festival and the Israeli border communities, killing scores of people and abducting men, women, babies and children — including elderly and disabled. Israel launched airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and sealed it off from food, fuel and other supplies in retaliation for a bloody incursion. The fighting has killed more than 1,400 people in Israel — mostly civilians slain during the initial Hamas attack. AP video shot by: Mohammad Jahjooh Find out more about AP Archive: Twitter: Facebook: ​​ Instagram: You can license this story through AP Archive: