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GAZA: Israeli air strikes hit three Gaza hospitals and a school on Friday, killing at least 22 people, and a ground battle was under way at another hospital, Palestinian officials said, as Israel’s forces took on Hamas in the heart of the enclave. Officials said missiles landed in the courtyard of Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, in the early hours, damaged the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi paediatric cancer hospital.
The hospitals are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated, and are full of displaced people as well as patients and doctors.Israel says Hamas is using them as human shields, which the group denies. Israeli tanks have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi, Children’s and Eye hospitals as well as the Al-Quds hospital, medical staff said earlier, raising the alarm.
“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals,” Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Shifa hospital, which was struck by a missiles early on Friday, said. Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Shifa hospital buildings five times. “One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack,” he said by phone. Verified videos showed scenes of panic and people covered in blood. Selmeyah said later that at least 20 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al-Buraq school in Gaza City, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering. The Palestinian Red Cross said Israeli forces were shooting at Al-Quds hospital, and there were violent clashes, with one person killed and 28 wounded, most of them kids. Israel is yet to comment on the reports. It says it does not aim its attacks at civilians and tries to protect them. Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy has said Hamas HQ was in Shifa’s hospital’s basement, which meant the hospital could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.
The Israeli military has said it struck over 15,000 “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip and located 6,000 weapons since the beginning of the war. The armed wing of Hamas said on Friday it was still firing rockets and shells into Israel and fighting off troops in Gaza. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas to alert people to Hamas rocket fire. Medics reported two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds.
Even before the conflict closed in on them, Gaza’s hospitals were struggling to cope, with medical supplies, clean water and fuel to power generators running out. In the wake of the blast at Shifa hospital, thousands of people fled. The Israeli government said people would have all day to move to the south of Gaza. Qidra said clearing out the hospitals was impossible. “We are talking about 45 babies in incubators, 52 children in ICUs, hundreds of wounded and patients, and tens of thousands of displaced people,” he said.
The hospitals are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated, and are full of displaced people as well as patients and doctors.Israel says Hamas is using them as human shields, which the group denies. Israeli tanks have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi, Children’s and Eye hospitals as well as the Al-Quds hospital, medical staff said earlier, raising the alarm.
“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals,” Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Shifa hospital, which was struck by a missiles early on Friday, said. Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Shifa hospital buildings five times. “One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack,” he said by phone. Verified videos showed scenes of panic and people covered in blood. Selmeyah said later that at least 20 people were killed in Israeli strikes on Al-Buraq school in Gaza City, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering. The Palestinian Red Cross said Israeli forces were shooting at Al-Quds hospital, and there were violent clashes, with one person killed and 28 wounded, most of them kids. Israel is yet to comment on the reports. It says it does not aim its attacks at civilians and tries to protect them. Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy has said Hamas HQ was in Shifa’s hospital’s basement, which meant the hospital could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.
The Israeli military has said it struck over 15,000 “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip and located 6,000 weapons since the beginning of the war. The armed wing of Hamas said on Friday it was still firing rockets and shells into Israel and fighting off troops in Gaza. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas to alert people to Hamas rocket fire. Medics reported two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds.
Even before the conflict closed in on them, Gaza’s hospitals were struggling to cope, with medical supplies, clean water and fuel to power generators running out. In the wake of the blast at Shifa hospital, thousands of people fled. The Israeli government said people would have all day to move to the south of Gaza. Qidra said clearing out the hospitals was impossible. “We are talking about 45 babies in incubators, 52 children in ICUs, hundreds of wounded and patients, and tens of thousands of displaced people,” he said.
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