Liverpool surgeon in Gaza to carry out transplants describes shaking buildings as area is bombed
Watch as air strikes are carried out while Dr Abdel Hammad, a surgeon at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, speaks to ITV News.
A Liverpool-based doctor working in Gaza says the building he is in has been "shaking all day" as strikes are carried out just yards from where he is sheltering.
As Dr Abdel Hammad, a surgeon at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital, spoke to ITV News reporter Rachel Townsend another round of strikes were carried out, rocking his laptop.
He has regularly visited the Gaza strip for the past decade to carry out kidney transplants and train local doctors.
But, he says in all his years visiting Gaza the attacks he is witnessing are unprecedented.
"This is the first time I have been in this situation," he said as the building he was sheltering in shook around him from the attack.
"I think probably it is the most serious situation it has been in Gaza for a long long time.
"It has been like this [air strikes] all afternoon, imagine where they have hit, how that will be."
"There have been air strikes continuously since yesterday (Sunday 8 October), but today it has intensified," he added.
"We received a warning about 1 o'clock that they will hit a building across the road which belongs to the Islamic University, and it was very loud explosions, the building was shaking here.
"It's very close, it's been across the road in fact, that is where they are striking at the moment."
Dr Hammad was due to carry out kidney transplants in Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical complex and central hospital in the Gaza Strip.
He arrived in Gaza on Friday, 6 October, but has been sheltering since the Hamas military group launched an attack across the Israel border, already resulting in more than a thousand deaths on both sides of the conflict.
He is currently in a shelter with around 20 other UN workers.
"I was talking to the guys here with us," he said. "I said when I come here my ambition is to save three, four, five lives by doing the transplants, and then you find that in a couple of days 2,000 are killed.
"It has sent me to despair really."
The Israeli government has been intensifying its bombardment of the Gaza Strip after declaring it is "at war" against Hamas - after the militant group attacked Israel on Saturday.
The death toll from the two-day conflict has surpassed 1,200 and thousands others have been wounded on both sides.
At least 700 people have reportedly been killed in Israel and over 560 have been killed in Gaza.
Palestinian militant groups claim to be holding more than 130 captives from the Israeli side.
Dr Hammad said colleagues and those around him who live in Gaza are "terrified".
"We are here in a safe building, the safest building in Gaza but for the people they are terrified, they are running across the street," the doctor said.
"My colleagues have left their houses and are sheltering in UNWRA schools.
"One of my colleagues at Al-Shifa left his home with his family, so there is a lot of devastation in that area, a lot of destruction, a lot of casualties from the air strikes.
"Al-Shifa are overwhelmed with the number of casualties they have."
He said that those in Gaza were "bracing themselves" as they have nowhere to flee with all borders closed.
Dr Hammad said: "They realise the seriousness of the situation, I don't think they have any means of escaping or going anywhere so they are resigned to whatever comes, and the situation.
"Gaza is a very crowded place, the most crowded place there isn't any border where they can leave Gaza because all borders are closed, so there isn't anywhere for the ordinary people to go, unless they go to the sea.
"It is the civilians who have no means of escaping this place who will pay the price."
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