Death toll from Gaza hospital explosion unclear

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry revised the death toll from an explosion at a Gaza City hospital down from 500 to 471 on Wednesday but did not elaborate on how authorities reached that figure.

Staff members at al-Ahli Hospital said they could not gauge the toll because the blast had dismembered so many bodies. Hospital director Suhaila Tarazi and Episcopal Church officials that run al-Ahli could only estimate that the toll was “in the hundreds” and refrained from giving an exact number.

Mohammed Abu Selmia, general director of Shifa Hospital where all the wounded and dead were transferred following the explosion, told AP early Wednesday that he believed the death toll was closer to 250, with hundreds more wounded. (AP)