After 10 days of a relentless Israeli assault, Shifa Hospital, Gaza's largest, is overwhelmed. Bodies are crowded two to a morgue drawer. Some are on the floor.

Many of the wounded are treated in hallways because rooms are full. Harried doctors and nurses run on little sleep, and the hospital is powered by emergency generators after shelling damaged power cables.

"Whoever comes with a head, we check his pulse. If there's no pulse, he's straight to the morgue. If there's no head, well, goodbye," said hospital official Raid Arini.

The hospital scenes have only worsened since Israel began a ground offensive on Saturday. Most of the dead and wounded now arriving at Shifa are civilians.

Yesterday, 20 children between the age of two and 15 were killed, said Dr Moaiya Hassanein of the Gaza Health Ministry.

Red-eyed nurse Ahmad Abdul Salam, 34, said he couldn't sleep. "When my shift ends, I help my colleagues. These are our brothers and friends who are being harmed," he said.

The hospital's most gruesome scene is in its morgue, where refrigerators meant to hold 35 bodies crammed in 70 by laying them side-by-side in drawers. The bodies of three nephews aged three, four, and five lay on the floor on a grey mat.

No militants were seen at Shifa. Hamas has not listed its casualties and it is unclear where militants are being treated or where their bodies are stored.

Medics appeared exhausted but defiant.

Mohammed Salman, 26, a volunteer medic, said he had treated people with horrific injuries, including headless children and a woman whose stomach had been torn open.

"The woman screamed, Leave me and save my children'," he said.

Unicef activist Queen Rania of Jordan said yesterday the children of Gaza and their parents are "not acceptable collateral damage".

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