This story contains descriptions that may be disturbing.

Two doctors at one of the last functioning hospitals in Gaza City say they are overwhelmed by the number of people defeated in Israeli attacks and by having to operate in harsh conditions. unsanitary conditions with little or no anesthesia.

An Australian volunteer doctor at al-Shifa Hospital told the BBC that the hospital was inundated with victims of the attacks every day, while another Australian doctor described having to extract the baby of a mother killed in a bombardment.

At the time of speaking, Israeli forces were just 500 meters from the hospital, as they expanded their ground offensive to fully occupy Gaza City.

Israeli air and artillery strikes, including the use of quadcopter drones and remote detonations of explosive-laden vehicles, continue to force tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes every day.

The Israeli military calls Gaza City a Hamas “stronghold” and says its offensive is aimed at defeating the group and securing the release of hostages still held after 23 months of war.

Al-Shifa Hospital was the largest complex doctor on the Strip. It now lies in ruins, riddled with craters, burned-out wards, and bullet holes.

But inside, doctors are working non-stop. Many beds don't even have mattresses, medicine is scarce, and the wounded are countless.

“It's mass murder, a killing spree, torture, a nightmare,” Nada Abu Alrub, an Australian emergency room specialist, told the BBC in a video call on Tuesday.

The doctor said they were operating on critically injured patients with “minimal or virtually no anesthesia.”

“With no painkillers, limbs hanging off with a piece of skin and tendon. Brain. matter exposed. Organs protruding. It's horrific,” she added.

Last week, she said, They had to perform an emergency cesarean section on a nine-month pregnant woman who had been decapitated in an attack. They managed to save her daughter.

“The baby had mild bradycardia, so her heart rate was low,” she said. “They transferred her to another hospital.”

Meanwhile, Saya Aziz, an Australian anesthesiologist, described how a six-year-old boy with a broken arm and leg had been waiting for three days for surgery to fit external fixators, as the hospital's only orthopedic surgeon had to prioritize the most serious cases.

“Every two hours there are multiple cases of amputation with mass resuscitation. It's literally a matter of saving a life or a limb,” she told the BBC.

“And you're trying to anesthetize the wounded, while they're killing in the operating room.”

“There's blood on the beds. There's no equipment. There are no spare parts. And you can see the pain and sadness of the medical staff.”

Outside the hospital, Israeli tanks advance as the ground offensive in Gaza City continues.

A video posted on social media Wednesday showed a tank at the Hamid Junction in the Gaza Strip neighborhood. from Rimal, less than 500 meters from al-Shifa.

Another video showed troops to the south, just 700 meters from the city center.

Palestinian journalist Fathi Sabah, a resident of southern Gaza but who owns an apartment in the southern neighborhood of Tal al-Hawa, said his family narrowly escaped an Israeli incursion.

“My wife and son went to our apartment to collect some belongings. Suddenly, they found "They spent the toughest night of their lives before escaping through a back door. It's incredible how quickly the tanks reached the heart of the city." An estimated 1 million Palestinians were living in Gaza City before Israel announced plans for the offensive last month. The UN says more than 320,000 people have fled south since then, while the Israeli military puts the number at 640,000.

The Israeli military has ordered people to head south to a designated “humanitarian zone” in al-Mawasi, where it said medical care, water, and food will be provided.

However, witnesses say the coastal road at al-Rashid is heavily congested, taking families hours to complete the journey.

The cost of evacuation has also reportedly been estimated to be more than $3,000 per family, an amount beyond the reach of most residents of Gaza City.

The UN also said the tented camps in al-Mawasi were overcrowded and unsafe, adding that hospitals in the south were operating at several times their capacity.

“The tanks are just meters from my house, but I can't afford to flee,” Sultan Nassar, a 62-year-old father of five from the Sabra neighborhood, told the BBC. “Death is everywhere, in the north as well as in the south.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported Tuesday that the oxygen station at Al-Quds Hospital in Tal al-Hawa stopped functioning after being hit by Israeli fire, and that the hospital only had three days' worth of pre-filled oxygen cylinders.

Israeli military vehicles were stationed at the hospital's southern gate, preventing entry and exit, it added.

The Israeli military said it was investigating the report.

On Monday, the Gaza Health Ministry said the Israeli advance and shelling had forced Al-Rantisi Children's Hospital and the nearby St. John Eye Hospital in the Nasr neighborhood to evacuate their patients and close.

The Jordanian military also decided to close its field hospital in Tal al-Hawa and relocate it to southern Gaza. Jordan's state news agency reported that intense shelling and other explosions in the vicinity damaged the facility and some medical equipment.

The primary health care center of the Palestine Medical Aid Society. in Gaza City was destroyed in An Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, reportedly wounding two health workers, the World Health Organization said.

The center provided blood banks, trauma care, cancer drugs, and treatment for chronic diseases.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, in which around 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.

At least 65,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Health Ministry.

Click here to read more BBC stories News Mundo.

Subscribe here to our new newsletter to receive a selection of our best content of the week every Friday.

You can also follow us on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook, and our WhatsApp channel.

And remember, you can receive notifications in our app. Download the latest version and activate them.