FIDA BASAL, 20, was not there when the missile struck her uncle's house the day after Israel began its ground invasion of Gaza. But her sister, Hanin, 18, was.

Fida found Hanin at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. One of Hanin's legs, her sister was told, had been amputated. "I want her leg now," Fida screamed at her mother. "God has no mercy. You get me her leg now."

Her uncle lost both legs.

Another woman found only half of the body of her daughter, 17, in the Shifa morgue. "May God exterminate Hamas," she screamed, in a curse rarely heard these days during a conflict in which many Palestinians praise Hamas as resisters. Israel contends that Hamas has purposely endangered civilian lives by fighting in and around populated areas.

The scene on Sunday at the hospital, a singular and grisly reflection of the violence around it, was both harrowing and puzzling. A week ago, after Israel began its air assault, hundreds of Hamas militants were taken to the hospital.