An Israeli airstrike on Sunday hit one of Gaza’s few functioning hospitals, resulting in the death of a child according to the WHO, as Israel warned it would expand its offensive if Hamas does not release hostages.
Since the outbreak of war, tens of thousands of Gazans have sought refuge in hospitals, many of which have suffered severe damage in the ongoing hostilities.
“A child died due to disruption of care” at al-Ahli hospital in northern Gaza after a strike, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media.
Photo: Reuters
“The emergency room, laboratory, emergency room X-ray machines and the pharmacy were destroyed,” he wrote. “The hospital was forced to move 50 patients to other hospitals. 40 critical patients couldn’t be moved.”
The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas “command and control center” at the hospital, a claim the Palestinian group denied.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said the strike came “minutes after the [Israeli] army’s warning to evacuate.”
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that there was “no medical activity taking place” in the hospital building hit by a “precise strike.”
“There were no civilian casualties as a result of the strike,” it said on social media.
Photographs showed massive slabs of concrete and twisted metal scattered across the site after the strike.
The blast left a gaping hole in one of the hospital’s buildings, with iron doors torn from their hinges.
Another airstrike on Sunday on a vehicle in the city of Deir el-Balah killed seven people including six brothers, the civil defense agency said.
Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz on Sunday reiterated that the military would expand its offensive if Hamas “persists in its refusal” to free the remaining hostages.
“Gaza will become smaller and more isolated, and more of its residents will be forced to evacuate from the combat zones,” he said, adding that hundreds of thousands had already evacuated.
Patients, relatives and medical workers found themselves stranded in the streets after the strike on al-Ahli hospital.
Naela Imad, 42, had been sheltering at the hospital, but had to rush out of the complex.
“Just as we reached the hospital gate, they bombed it. It was a massive explosion,” she said. “Now, me and my children are out on the street... The hospital was our last refuge.”
Hamas condemned what it described as a “savage crime” committed by Israel.
Qatar, which helped mediate a fragile ceasefire between the warring parties that fell apart last month, denounced it as “a heinous crime,” as did Saudi Arabia.
Also on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for advocating a Palestinian state.
“President Macron is gravely mistaken in continuing to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land — a state whose sole aspiration is the destruction of Israel,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
Macron, in an interview to France 5 this week, said that France could take the step at a UN conference in New York in June, saying he hoped this would trigger a reciprocal recognition of Israel by Arab nations.
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