International doctors and nurses who treated Palestinians in Gazan hospitals described wounds more severe than civilians had suffered in other modern conflicts, according to a peer-reviewed study, AFP reports.

For the research in the leading medical journal BMJ, 78 humanitarian healthcare workers mostly from Europe and North America answered survey questions describing the severity, location and cause of the wounds they saw during their stints in the Gaza Strip.

The British-led team of researchers acknowledged that this only offered an “anecdotal and fragmented” view of Palestinian injuries during Israel’s nearly two-year offensive on Gaza.

However, given that the besieged territory’s health facilities have been devastated and international access is heavily restricted, the researchers said it is likely the most comprehensive data available about injuries during the conflict.

Two-thirds of the healthcare workers had previously deployed to other conflict zones, the vast majority of whom said the injuries in Gaza were “the worst thing that they’ve ever seen”, the study’s lead author, British surgeon Omar El-Taji, told AFP.