Extract from ABC News
Every morning, Yasser Abed goes to work, unsure if he'll survive the day.
The veteran paramedic has been a first responder in Gaza for two decades, but he's seen nothing like this war.
WARNING: Some readers might find the details and images in this story distressing.
"A great number of my colleagues went to work and they never came back," he says.
"I can go out and never return home. There is no safety at all. It is zero per cent. The most important thing is to rely on God."
At least one person from Yasser's team has been killed by Israeli air strikes while on the job.
But Yasser doesn't really have time to think about that. Everywhere he goes, people need him desperately.
"This is our work, this is our life," he sighs as he turns on the sirens in his ambulance.
An Israeli air strike has just hit the Deir el-Balah neighbourhood in southern Gaza and Yasser needs to get there.
He speeds down Gaza's narrow and damaged streets, already anticipating the devastation.
"There definitely are casualties. There are martyrs. There's definitely 10," he says.
"Every hit, there are about 10 dead and many wounded."
The things Yasser can never unsee
Every day, Yasser witnesses the carnage inflicted upon Gazan civilians by the Israeli bombardment.
He says the worst cases involve children, some whose bodies have been ripped apart by the impact of a missile.
"We transport corpses [of] children, children that are almost dead or taking their last breath in our arms," he says, his eyes filling with tears at the memory.
"Children sometimes die in our hands, that's disturbing."
As he pulls up to the bomb site, he wipes his eyes. It's time to work.
A stream of Gazan civilians are already running along the street away from the impact site, carrying several of the injured or dead.
An elderly man clutches his granddaughter whose blackened face is smeared in concrete dust.
"This way, this way," Yasser yells to his team as they start running towards the epicentre.
A three-storey apartment building has collapsed in a devastating wreckage.
About 40 people live inside and are suspected to be buried under the rubble.
Yasser picks his way over giant mounds of concrete and twisted metal, searching for any signs of life.
Around him, dozens of Palestinian men are also frantically trying their best to rescue those trapped.
Two arms stick out from underneath a collapsed wall. It's not clear if the person is alive or dead, but the men scrape away at the concrete with their hands.
Others use kitchen knives and hammers to chip away at the blocks, in what seems like a futile attempt to break through the wreckage.
The men yell into a cavity "Allahu Akbar" – calling out for anyone to respond. But no-one answers.
Yasser is trying to crawl into a small triangular space that's been created between a floor and two collapsed walls.
But suddenly his team shout out his name.
"Yasser, Yasser," they yell.
A woman has been found alive and they need the ambulance now.
The faces that haunt Yasser
Yasser runs the 200 metres back to the vehicle and starts the ignition.
Every second is precious in the race to save someone's life, especially now that his ambulance is missing vital supplies, like oxygen.
"Because of the war, some equipment has been damaged," he says.
"It should be fixed. We have to take them for repair, but we don't have time for that.
"We work around the clock because of the hardship of the war, the big number of casualties, and the huge air strikes around us."
The siren starts blaring and Yasser manoeuvres the van around chunks of debris, driving towards the hospital.
He uses a loudspeaker to move people out of the way.
"We urge you to clear the road, we urge you to clear the road," his voice projects around the streets.
In the back of the ambulance, two other paramedics are checking the woman's injuries while she screams in pain.
She clutches her chest and the paramedics urge Yasser to drive faster.
After about 10 minutes, Yasser pulls up at the emergency department.
A huge crowd of displaced Gazans who are sheltering inside the hospital grounds watch as the woman is rushed into the already over-crowded emergency room.
As she's wheeled along the corridor, Yasser points to a young boy with a bloodied head wrapped in a bandage.
The boy is attached to an IV drip and lies shivering on the floor. There is no free bed for him.
Next to him, also on the floor, is a toddler covered in blood, screaming in pain.
The scene haunts Yasser.
He's seen too many injured or killed children and he breaks down in tears. Some of them, he cannot rescue.
"There was a baby who was half-white with the beautiful angel face, and his other half was burnt," he says.
"He was dead, he was a few months old. He was still warm — there was no soul, yet he was warm as if he had recently died.
"These moments bring us down. They destroy us."
But there is no time for Yasser to dwell on the horror inside the hospital.
He is needed back at the bomb site, so he hops back into the ambulance and starts to drive.
The United Nations says about 2,700 Gazans are reported missing in the war so far – likely to be buried or crushed underneath bombed buildings.
'I stay for the children'
Back at the site of the air strike, the chaos continues as people shout for more help, and more emergency workers arrive.
Body after body is pulled from under the wreckage and immediately wrapped in a blanket.
One of the dead is placed into the back of Yasser's ambulance.
He will deliver the body to the hospital where families searching for loved ones will trawl the hallways and the morgue.
"We usually transport injured people. Now, we have a dead person in the ambulance," Yasser says.
"Unfortunately, we have many injured under the rubble, but we cannot do anything to help them.
"They die slowly, they die slowly."
Every single day in this war is a repeat of the last, Yasser says. Death, injuries, pain and despair.
But he's driven by the hope he can save at least one life a day.
"We have to be strong and resume our work. Our work is human," he says.
"We have to stay strong and go wherever a blast is occurring.
"I stay for the children. The children are innocent, and they are killed in cold blood."
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