CAIRO (Reuters) -Two Israeli missiles hit a building inside a main Gaza hospital on Sunday, destroying the emergency and reception department and damaging other structures, medics said, in a strike which Israel said was against Hamas fighters exploiting the facility.
Health officials at the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital evacuated the patients from the building after a phone call from someone who identified himself as Israeli security shortly before the attack.
No casualties were reported in the strike. The Israeli military said in a statement it had taken steps to reduce harm to civilians before it struck the compound, which was being used by Hamas militants to plan attacks.
The hospital – an institution of the Anglican Church and a major medical facility – was knocked out of operation, according Gaza’s health ministry.
“Hundreds of patients and injured people had to be evacuated in the middle of the night, and many of them are now out in the streets without medical care, which puts their lives at risk,” said the ministry’s spokesperson, Khalil Al-Deqran.
Sunday’s strikes came as Hamas leaders began a fresh round of talks in Cairo, in a bid to salvage a stalled ceasefire agreement with Israel, as Egypt, Qatar, and the United States have stepped up efforts to bridge gaps between the sides.
Images circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed dozens of people leaving the premises, with some assisting patients on hospital beds.
Reuters footage showed significant destruction in and outside the hospital compound’s church, and patients who couldn’t leave.
WARNING
“The scene was scary, from night until now, I haven’t slept a single minute out of fear. All night, glass shattered at us inside,” said an injured man, Mohammed Abu Nasser.
The Baptist Church in Jerusalem said the warning to evacuate the hospital came 20 minutes before the strike that destroyed the two-storey Genetic Laboratory, and damaged the Pharmacy and Emergency Department buildings and other surrounding structures.
“We call upon all governments and people of goodwill to intervene to stop all kinds of attacks on medical and humanitarian institutions,” the church said in a statement.
The Palestinian foreign ministry and Hamas condemned the attack at Al-Ahli, and said in a statement that Israel was destroying Gaza’s healthcare system.
Israel says Hamas systematically exploits civilian structures, including hospitals, which the militant group denies. Israeli forces have carried out numerous raids in medical facilities in the enclave.
In October 2023, a deadly blast at a parking lot in the compound of Al-Ahli hospital was blamed by Hamas on an Israeli airstrike. Israel said a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group had caused the blast.
The militant group denied it was responsible. An investigation by Human Rights Watch concluded the explosion was most likely caused by a failed Palestinian rocket launch.
OTHER STRIKES
Separate strikes in the enclave on Sunday killed at least 14 Palestinians, including the head of a police station in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Hamas-run enclave, according to Hamas and health authorities. Six brothers were killed when an Israeli strike hit their car in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza Strip, medics said.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities. Much of Gaza is in ruins and most of its population has been displaced.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Writing by Muhammad Al Gebaly; Editing by Sandra Maler and Bernadette Baum)
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
