Mahmud al-Astal is one of many medics providing lifesaving care as casualties flood hospitals in Gaza, only to one day discover his sister and her entire family among the dead.

“I went to the morgue and found her charred and in pieces,” the 34-year-old doctor told AFP from the main hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

“On the third day of the war, while I was working at the emergency unit in Nasser Hospital, I discovered my sister had been killed with her husband and children,” he said.

Those strikes razed entire buildings, including one where Astal’s 40-year-old sister Sadafah died alongside her husband Hussein, also 40, and their children Fadwa, Azar, Ahmad and Suleiman, aged between six and 13.

“Ever since my sister was killed… the nightmares don’t leave me. I imagine that my children will arrive at the hospital in pieces,” Astal said.

“My children dream of travelling one day. Now I don’t know if they will come out of this war alive.” Despite the tragedy, he is determined to continue his vital work. “We have no other choice but to work and serve the injured to save them.”