Hospital targeted by Israel as Gaza attacks intensify
The Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was struck on Palm Sunday, after an evacuation warning.
Israel has struck a hospital in northern Gaza, forcing patients to evacuate as attacks intensified across the Strip.
The pre-dawn strike on Sunday hit Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, after Israel issued an evacuation warning, according to Gaza’s ministry of health.
One patient, a girl, died during the evacuation because medical staff were unable to provide urgent care, it said.
The hospital is run by the Diocese of Jerusalem, which condemned the attack in a statement and said it happened on “Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week, the most sacred week of the Christian year”. Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem.
Israel said it struck a command and control centre used by Hamas at the hospital to plan and execute attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers. It said that prior to the strike, steps were taken to mitigate harm, including issuing warnings, and using precise munitions and aerial surveillance.
In a statement, Hamas denied the allegations that the hospital was used by militants and called for an independent international investigation.
Hours later, a separate strike on a car in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed six brothers and their friend, according to staff at the morgue which received the bodies. The youngest brother was 10.
The brothers’ father, Ibrahim Abu Mahadi, said his sons worked for a charity that distributes food to Palestinians in Gaza. “For what sin were they killed?” he asked.
Another strike in Deir al-Balah, on a municipal building on Sunday afternoon, killed at least three people, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. In the southern city of Khan Younis, a strike killed at least three people.
The Israeli military also said it had targeted another command and control centre in Deir al-Balah when many Hamas militants were present and planning to carry out an attack against Israeli soldiers. This was not connected to the strike on the car in the same area, which the army said it is looking into.
The strikes came hours after Israel’s defence minister said military activity would rapidly expand across Gaza and that people would have to evacuate from “fighting zones”.
Israel also announced on Saturday the completion of the Morag corridor, cutting off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, with the military saying it would soon expand “vigorously” in most of the small coastal territory.
Israeli authorities have vowed to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 believed to be alive, and accept proposed new ceasefire terms.
Director of Al-Ahli Hospital, Dr Fadel Naim, said they were warned of the attack beforehand. In a post on social media site X, he wrote that the emergency room, pharmacy and surrounding buildings were severely damaged, impacting more than 100 patients and dozens of medical staff.
The health ministry said the strike destroyed the ward for outpatients and laboratories and damaged the emergency ward.
