Gaza correspondent
Getty PicturesAn Israeli strike has destroyed the intensive care and surgical procedure departments of the principle medical facility in Gaza Metropolis, Hamas has mentioned.
Video posted on-line appeared to indicate enormous flames and smoke rising from Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital after missiles hit a two-storey constructing. Individuals, together with some sufferers nonetheless in hospital beds, had been filmed dashing away from the positioning.
An area journalist mentioned the Israel Protection Forces (IDF) had phoned a physician and given an evacuation warning.
Hamas known as the strike a “horrific crime” by Israel, which has mentioned it’s trying into the reviews.
No casualties have been reported, based on the civil emergency service.
The native journalist, who was working on the hospital, mentioned an Israeli military officer known as a physician working within the emergency division and requested them to right away evacuate the hospital.
“All sufferers and displaced folks should exit to a protected distance,” the officer reportedly mentioned.
“You may have solely 20 minutes to go away.”
Footage on social media confirmed employees and sufferers leaving the constructing whereas it was nonetheless darkish outdoors.
Dozens of Palestinians, together with girls and kids, had been additionally seen fleeing from a courtyard contained in the hospital the place that they had been searching for shelter.
Al-Ahli – a small medical facility earlier than the battle – is now the one hospital nonetheless functioning in Gaza Metropolis following the destruction of Al-Shifa medical complex and hospitals within the northern a part of the Strip.
In its assertion, the Hamas-run authorities media workplace condemned the assault.
Israel “is committing a horrific crime by focusing on Al-Ahli Hospital, which homes a whole bunch of sufferers and medical employees”, it mentioned.
In October 2023, an assault on the identical hospital killed hundreds of people.
Palestinian officers blamed an Israeli strike for the blast. Israel mentioned the blast was brought on by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied duty.
The Israeli navy launched a marketing campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border assault on 7 October 2023, during which about 1,200 Israelis had been killed and 251 others had been taken hostage.
Greater than 50,933 folks have been killed in Gaza since then, based on the territory’s Hamas-run well being ministry.
Of these, 1,563 have been killed since 18 March, when Israel restarted its offensive within the Gaza Strip, the ministry mentioned, the ministry mentioned.
