JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Several Western countries, including the U.K., France, and Canada, have recognized a Palestinian state this week, saying it revives hopes for peace and a two-state solution. But Israel's prime minister says there will be no state of Palestine. And as NPR's Anas Baba reports, the recognition in Western capitals has not changed the course of Israel's war in Gaza.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: Tens of thousands of Israeli troops are advancing toward the heart of Gaza City under the cover of deadly airstrikes.
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BABA: The military's goals are to displace all of Gaza City residents and occupy it.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: Every day, the Al Shifa Hospital fills with bodies of the dead from Israel's attack on the city, once home to a million people, many of whom have fled.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: The situation is so bleak that this week, the International Committee of the Red Cross sent the hospital medical supplies along with 500 body bags. Entire families killed in Israeli attacks are being buried here on the grounds of the hospital because the city's graveyard can no longer be reach. Some are in makeshift tombs, other buried in mass graves.
Here, we can see that's the family of Al-Haddad - Adel, Marwa, Abdulkarim (ph), Mohammed, Mahmoud, Tasneem, Sham. Another two are next to me. One of the relatives - that he came today to sit to them, next to them - he picked some flowers from outside the hospital.
Moemen Haddad is holding red hibiscus flowers that used to line the streets of Gaza City. He plants them atop fresh graves. He says there were nine people, four of them children, killed in the Israeli airstrike on his cousin's home. Two of the kids are buried here. The other two are missing under the rubble. Israel's military says it's targeting Hamas and using precise munition to mitigate harm to civilians.
MOEMEN HADDAD: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: Haddad says his cousin Abdulkarim was his age - just 21. They were like brothers. But he says death has become a mercy in Gaza, a fate better than this life.
HADDAD: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: Al Shifa Hospital has seen mass graves before in the war. One was found on its courtyard after an Israeli raid that destroyed the complex. Haddad says the hospital has become a graveyard, and the graveyard has become the hospital.
HADDAD: (Non-English language spoken).
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BABA: New graves are being dug here every day now. One is marked with the footboards of old hospital beds, another with window frames. The staff watch over the grave at night to keep stray dogs away.
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BABA: Mohammed Najjar is struggling to find clean drinking water for his three kids. Aid to the city is running dry.
MOHAMMED NAJJAR: (Non-English language spoken).
BABA: He says the decision in London and Paris to recognize the state of Palestine has no real value if Israel's war here cannot be stopped.
Anas Baba, NPR News, Gaza City.
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