'I saw a woman and her children in the fire and couldn't help'

Survivors of the deadly fire caused by an Israeli strike on a Gaza hospital early on Monday are still in shock.

Speaking to Middle East Eye at the scene, some of them recalled harrowing scenes of their neighbours burning alive in the fire with no means of helping them. 

"As soon as we laid down [to sleep], the strike hit the hospital's courtyard and around seven minutes later there was a fire. We ran in a hurry," said Maha al-Sarsak, a survivor of the attack. 

"There were two people next to us from the al-Dalou family who couldn't leave in time and died in the fire. They came out charred skeletons," she added.

'I saw death with my own eyes'

- Maha al-Sarsak, displaced Palestinian

Sarsak said the fire grew bigger by the minute because it kept burning the tents alongside the mattresses and clothes inside them. 

"I don't know what to say. I saw death with my own eyes. It was frightening."

Sarsak, who is originally from Gaza City, has been seeking shelter at the hospital in Deir al-Balah, which has been struck by Israeli forces six times before in the past year. 

And even though she has seen a lot, nothing compared to the scene this morning. 

"I have never seen anything like this. I saw something burning inside the fire and thought it was a mattress but I then realised it was a woman," she told MEE as she broke into tears.

"I saw the woman and her children inside the fire and I couldn't help them. I then went inside the hospital and tried to tell people what I saw but I was losing my voice. No one could reach them.

"May God burn you in hell, Netanyahu."