More than 100 bodies at Gaza's Kamal Adwan hospital, Hamas-controlled health ministry says

There are 108 corpses lying – some unclaimed – at the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Israeli troops have been advancing toward the facility, with heavy gunfire and explosions around its vicinity over the past 24 hours.

A journalist inside the hospital, Mahmoud Al-Sabbah, sent CNN video Tuesday of about 30 bodies covered in white sheets in a courtyard.

Several more bodies were piled on a cart because, he said, ambulances were unable to operate in the area. It’s unclear how long the bodies had been there, but he said family members were trying to identify loved ones. 

Dr. Munir Al-Barsh, director general of the Ministry of Health in Gaza, said there was no power supply at Kamal Adwan hospital, and there were more than 7,000 displaced people there. Surgery had become impossible because of the lack of power, he said.

Only four hospitals are operating in northern Gaza and about 55 ambulances are out of service, Al-Barsh said. He also claimed that while 400 injured people had been able to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing, more than 40,000 injured remained in the Strip.

In an audio message sent from the hospital to CNN, Al-Sabbah said the facility was surrounded.

“The situation is very dangerous and [there is] heavy fire gunfire. The Israeli tanks and vehicles are advancing towards the hospital and are one block away,” Al-Sabbah said. As he spoke, heavy fire could be heard in the background.

In a separate video clip of about 30 seconds, the sound of gunfire and explosions is constant.

Another journalist at the hospital, Anas Al-Sharif, told CNN “the situation is very difficult.”

“The entire medical system has collapsed inside the hospital, and whoever gets injured ends as a martyr inside the hospital,” Al Sharif said.

CNN cannot verify the number of casualties at the hospital, where an unknown number of displaced civilians are also taking shelter.

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday that operations “happening now, in the north of the Gaza Strip, will soon lead to the breaking of the entire area of Gaza City and the north of the Gaza Strip.”

CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment on operations in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan.