![Rafah fire: bodies everywhere](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/3cfa3aeae8b6b801260c09e3a5312696b7ba05e9/97_494_5159_3095/master/5159.jpg?width=1140&dpr=2&s=none)
Zuhair, a 36-year-old lawyer, had been sitting on a road near his own tent, watching the news with friends as the last glimmers of twilight faded from the sky, when an explosion shook the area at about 8.45pm.
He raced towards the sound, terrified for his wife, children and friends. A vision of hell lay ahead, so gruesome he started shaking from shock. “I saw bodies everywhere. Children burning. I saw heads without bodies, the injured running around in pain, some alive but trapped inside burning tents.”
There had been no warning, and for many long minutes, there was no help.
He said people tried at first to drag the injured from tents with their bare hands, loading them on to donkey carts or cramming them into ordinary cars to seek help.