Parents in Gaza Inscribe Names on Children's Bodies... "At Least for Identification"

CNN "A Signal Showing Fear and Despair"

Tragic news has emerged that parents in the Gaza Strip of Palestine are writing their children's names on their arms and legs so that their identities can be confirmed if the children die.

On the 22nd (local time), according to CNN and others, as corpses overflow in hospitals across the Gaza Strip, some parents are writing their children's names on their bodies in case they or their children die, Yonhap News reported.

A video filmed by CNN at Al-Aqsa Hospital located in the center of the Gaza Strip showed the bodies of three children and one infant lying on stretchers on the floor of the morgue, with their calves marked with names in Arabic.

A child's leg in the Gaza Strip, Palestine, has a name written on it.
[Photo by Hani Aburesk, Palestinian journalist, Instagram capture]

CNN reported that residents of the Gaza Strip are writing names on their children's legs for postmortem identification, and that this has become increasingly common recently. It explained that this scene is "a sign of the fear and despair felt by parents in the Gaza Strip."

On the same day, the British BBC also reported the dire situation in the Gaza Strip, saying, "Surgeries are continuing urgently at Al-Aqsa Hospital, and bodies outside in the hospital yard are covered with white sheets."

An official from the hospital told BBC, "The hospital yard is filled with bodies, and there are bodies not only in the morgue refrigerators but also inside and outside the hospital," adding, "There are so many bodies that there are not even enough burial shrouds to cover them."

He also said, "All the bodies arrived at the hospital mutilated and their identities cannot be confirmed," adding, "Honestly, the situation is catastrophic and unbearable. We have witnessed things before, but this time the scenes are unlike anything we have seen."

Since Hamas's surprise attack on the 7th, Israel has retaliated with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, pushing hospitals in Gaza to their limits due to the influx of casualties.

The injured are lying on temporary beds and mattresses laid out in corridors due to a lack of hospital beds, and it has been reported that an ice cream truck is being used as a temporary morgue because the morgue is full.

Since the start of the war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas, the death toll on both sides is estimated to have exceeded 6,000.

Israel has not officially announced its death toll, but according to the Israeli media outlet Times of Israel, about 1,400 Israelis have died from Hamas attacks since the 7th.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip stated that during the same period, a total of 4,651 Palestinians have died due to Israeli attacks. It added that 40% of the deceased are children, and among the cumulative 14,245 injured, 70% are children and women.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.