An Israeli airstrike hit close to the doorway of Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza Metropolis on Friday, killing a number of folks, in line with Gazan and Israeli officers, simply as Palestinians stated a convoy of ambulances was getting ready to go away the hospital carrying wounded folks to the Gaza border, to cross into Egypt for therapy.
The Israeli navy stated it had carried out the strike on an ambulance “being utilized by a Hamas terrorist cell,” including in an announcement that “quite a lot of Hamas terrorist operatives had been killed within the strike.” An Israeli navy spokesman, Maj. Nir Dinar, confirmed that it was the identical strike that brought about the explosion exterior the hospital.
The top of Al Shifa Hospital, Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, stated that 13 folks had been killed and lots of had been injured. He stated that paramedics and sufferers within the evacuation convoy had been among the many injured, however that none had been killed.
The explosion occurred about 4:30 p.m., in line with native studies.
Hours earlier, a spokesman for the Well being Ministry, Ashraf al-Qudra, had introduced in a information convention {that a} convoy carrying “a lot of injured folks” would head south on Al Rasheed, a coastal freeway, at 4 p.m., towards the Rafah border crossing. Plenty of severely injured folks have in current days been taken to Egypt for medical therapy that’s not out there within the Gaza Strip.
In a later information convention, Mr. al-Qudra stated that the convoy had left the hospital and had gotten to a close-by roundabout, Ansar, when it was hit by an airstrike. The convoy turned again, and when it obtained again to the doorway of Al Shifa, it was hit once more, he stated. He stated 15 folks had been killed and 60 wounded.
Al Shifa Hospital has been on the middle of quite a few claims and crises for the reason that begin of the struggle. Israel says that Hamas, which controls Gaza and orchestrated a lethal assault on Israel on Oct. 7, is working a command middle beneath the hospital. Hamas has denied that.
Displaced Gazans live in and across the facility, believing it to be safer than different options.
The Gazan well being ministry and worldwide help teams say Al Shifa is working out of gasoline and has needed to curtail operations amid a continued cutoff of electrical energy and gasoline from Israel. Medical doctors have stated they’re treating massive numbers of individuals wounded in airstrikes with out sufficient drugs and provides.
Ismail Alghoull, who was filming contained in the hospital at the moment of the explosion, stated he heard a blast close to the ambulances and ran exterior to see what had occurred. He noticed dozens of casualties, he stated.
Salama Maarouf, the federal government spokesman, stated that one in all his workers, Haytham Harara, was among the many useless.
Ali Jadallah, a photographer for Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Company, stated that he was on the hospital together with his sister. They had been visiting their mom, who had been severely injured in an assault that destroyed their household house and killed 4 of their siblings in addition to their father. They had been close to the doorway of the hospital when the explosion occurred, he stated. His sister was hit by shrapnel.
Yousur Al-Hlou, Neil Collier, Patrick Kingsley and Nader Ibrahim contributed reporting.
