Israeli warplanes fired missiles, in the predawn hours of Friday, at several medical facilities in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinains, including children.
Israeli warplanes fired missiles at the outpatient clinics in the Al-Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, where tents for thousands of displaced people are set up, in addition to one for journalists, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, including many children.
Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director general of al-Shifa Hospital, told the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, that the Israeli missiles “led to a lot of casualties, including critical injuries. It could have been a massacre in this place because of the number of people in this complex”.
The Israeli Air Force also fired missiles at the Rantisi Children’s Hospital, igniting a fire, and earlier missiles targeted the gate at the nearby Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital, leading to dozens of casualties.
Mustafa Kahlout, the Director of the Rantisi Hospital, said the Israeli tanks have been surrounding the medical facility since Thursday, and added that the hospital is approaching a disaster as it is unable to provide even basic medical services, and called on international organizations to intervene.
In Beit Lahia, in the northern part of Gaza, the occupation launched a series of airstrikes in the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital, killing several Palestinians and wounding others.
An Israeli airstrike near the Al Awda Hospital in Jabalia, in northern Gaza, injured a Palestinian paramedic, while another airstrike targeted an area close to the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
According to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), the bombing injured a volunteer paramedic and damaged two ambulances, rendering them out of service.
It is important to mention that hospital directors in the northern part of the Gaza Strip have stated that hospitals in the area are dangerously close to shutting down due to a lack of fuel and urged the international community to facilitate medical supplies and fuel into the besieged and devastated Gaza Strip before a “major disaster” occurs.
Palestinian Minister of Health, Mai Al-Kaila, urged the United Nations to immediately intervene to force the occupation to cease the bombing of hospitals in the coastal enclave.
The Israeli strikes against the Al-Awda hospital struck many facilities and wards, including the children’s ward.
Al-Kaila added that bombing health facilities is a war crime that must be stopped at once and called on the international community to perform its duty to protect the hospitals and medical crews.
The Ministry of Health, on Thursday, announced that the occupation regime has killed at least 10812 Palestinians, including 4412 children and 2918 women, and injured more than 26,000 in the Gaza Strip, in the 34 days of excessive bombing and shelling.
More than half the homes of the Gaza Strip have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli missiles and shells.
Speaking to Al-Jazeera, Dr. Ashraf Al-Qedra, the spokesperson of the Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, said “Israel is now undertaking these dangerous steps against the hospitals to put them completely out of commission and subsequently displace the people sheltering in them, as well as the patients and medics.”
