This is the moment a BBC journalist burst into tears while reporting from inside a Gaza hospital.

BBC Arab journalist Adnan El-Bursh fell to his knees after seeing dozens of friends and neighbors among the dead as Israel bombs the settlement in retaliation for Hamas’ murderous rampage.

He described the situation at Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the 40-kilometer strip, as traumatic with “bodies everywhere”. In one segment, a young girl with a bloodied face sits upright in a hospital bed, crying and covered in dust while a doctor attends to her legs. El-Bursh reveals that she lost her home and her loved ones were killed.

Speaking to the camera at the end of his report, El-Bursh admits: “I’ve seen things I can never unsee.

BBC Arab journalist Adnan El-Bursh reported on the desperate plight of civilians as Israel bombed Gaza for the sixth night in a row.

Mr. El-Bursh cried after seeing the situation at Al-Shifa Hospital

His cameraman Mahmoud also cried after seeing his friend Malik injured.

“Here at Al-Shifa Hospital, bodies were lying everywhere. The injured are screaming for help, you will never be able to forget these sounds. Among the dead and injured, my cameraman Mahmoud saw his friend Malik.

“Malik managed to survive, but his family did not.

“This is my local hospital. Inside are my friends, my neighbors, this is my community. Today was one of the most difficult days of my career.

“I’ve seen things I can never unsee.”

Israel bombed Gaza in retaliation for Hamas’s rampage in southern Israeli towns that killed at least 1,300 people this week.

But at least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in the bombing campaigns, and Israel has also exchanged barbs with the Lebanese group Hezbollah.

Human Rights Watch said it verified videos taken in Lebanon on October 10 and Gaza on October 11 showing “multiple aerial explosions of white phosphorus fired by artillery over the Gaza City port and two rural areas along the Israeli-Lebanese border.

White phosphorus munitions can legally be used on battlefields to create smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets, or burn bunkers and buildings.

Because it has legal uses, white phosphorus is not banned as a chemical weapon by international conventions, but it can cause severe burns and start fires.

White phosphorus is considered an incendiary weapon under Protocol III of the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons, which prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against military targets among civilians, although ‘Israel did not sign it and is not bound by it.

“White phosphorus is used illegally and indiscriminately when sprayed in populated urban areas, where it can burn homes and cause significant harm to civilians,” Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of using white phosphorous munitions in its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.

White phosphorus munitions can legally be used on battlefields to create smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets, or burn bunkers and buildings – but they can cause serious burns and fires, the phosphorus white used as a weapon with devastating effect.

Israeli occupation planes drop white phosphorous bombs west of Gaza City on October 11, 2023 in Gaza City, Gaza

A fireball erupts during an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on October 12

Israeli tanks move near the Gaza border as the Israeli army deploys military vehicles around the Gaza Strip, Israel, October 12, 2023.

Israeli artillery fire enters the Gaza Strip from the border, October 12, 2023.

Asked for comment on the allegations, the Israeli military said it was “currently not aware of the use of weapons containing white phosphorus in Gaza.”

He did not comment on the rights watchdog’s allegations about their use in Lebanon.

Palestinian television channels have broadcast video in recent days showing thin plumes of white smoke lining the sky above Gaza that they say were caused by such munitions.

The Israeli military announced in 2013 that it was phasing out white phosphorous smokescreen munitions used during its 2008–2009 Gaza offensive, which sparked allegations of war crimes from various groups. defense of rights.

The military did not say at the time whether it would also review the use of white phosphorus, intended to incinerate enemy positions.

This morning, the Israeli Defense Forces issued an evacuation order to some 1.1 million people living in the Gaza Strip, giving them 24 hours to leave their homes before what is believed to be an intensification of airstrikes or a ground attack.

But Hamas called on Palestinians to stay at home.

The Hamas Authority for Refugee Affairs called on residents of the northern territory to “stand firm at home and show firmness in the face of this disgusting psychological war waged by the occupation.”

Palestinians could only flee south, inside Gaza, because Israel has completely sealed off the territory, a narrow strip of land about 40 kilometers long.

The Israeli military said it would operate with “significant force” in Gaza in the coming days and is calling on civilians to evacuate.

Spokesman Jonathan Conricus said Israeli forces “will make considerable efforts to avoid harming civilians.”

He added: “Understanding that there are civilians here who are not our enemies and that we do not want to target them, we are asking them to evacuate.”

Suffering in Gaza has increased, with Palestinians in desperate need of food, fuel and medicine, while the territory’s only power plant is closed for lack of fuel. A morgue was reportedly overflowing as bodies arrived faster than relatives could collect them.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is expected to travel there on Friday, a day after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The war has left at least 2,800 dead on both sides since the Hamas incursion launched on October 7.

Inas Hamdan, an officer with the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, said: “It’s chaos, no one understands what to do. »

She said all UN personnel in Gaza City and northern Gaza had been ordered to evacuate south to Rafah.

Nebal Farsakh, spokesman for the Palestinian Red Crescent in Gaza City, said it was not possible to move more than a million people safely within the time frame: “Forget food, forget electricity, forget fuel. The only concern now is whether… you’re going to live.

She added: “What will happen to our patients?

“We have injured people, elderly people, children in hospital.”