Israel intensifies strikes across Gaza on Palm Sunday and hits a hospital
A wave of Israeli strikes across Gaza on Sunday hit a hospital and other sites, killing at least 21 people, including children, as Israel vowed to expand its security presence in the small coastal strip.
The pre-dawn strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was the latest of several attacks on northern Gaza's last major hospital providing critical health care.
Hospital director Dr Fadel Naim said the emergency room, pharmacy and surrounding buildings were severely damaged, affecting more than 100 patients and dozens of staff.
One patient, a girl, died during the evacuation following an Israeli warning because staff were unable to provide urgent care, Gaza's Health Ministry said. Israel said it struck a Hamas command and control centre at the hospital, without providing evidence. Hamas denied the allegations.
Al-Ahli Hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which condemned the attack, saying in a statement it happened on 'Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week, the most sacred week of the Christian year'.
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, and worshippers in Gaza City marked it in a church whose gilded trim and intact walls were a contrast to the widespread debris elsewhere.
Associated Press video showed the hospital's caved-in roof surrounded by rubble. The health ministry's director general, Dr Munir al-Boursh, said patients had been carried outside in beds and slept in the streets.
'Nothing was left safe inside the hospital, or all over Gaza,' said Mohammad Abu Nasser, an injured man who sat on his bed outdoors and looked at the destruction.
The health ministry said the hospital was temporarily out of service and patients were transferred to other hospitals in Gaza City.
The aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians called it the fifth attack on Al-Ahli since the war began.
Hospitals have special protection under international law.
Israel has besieged and raided them, some several times, and struck multiple while accusing Hamas of using them as cover for its fighters.
Last month, Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest in southern Gaza, killing two people and causing a large fire, the health ministry said. The facility had been overwhelmed when Israel ended a two-month ceasefire last month with a surprise wave of airstrikes.
Hours later, on Sunday, a strike on a car in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed at least seven people, including six brothers, according to staff at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.
The youngest brother was 10.
Their father, Ibrahim Abu Mahadi, said his sons worked for a charity that distributes food to Palestinians. 'For what sin were they killed?' he said.
An airstrike on Sunday afternoon hit a house in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least seven people including two women, according to the Indonesian hospital.
A pregnant woman was rescued from the rubble. Alaa Manoun later wept after learning her youngest daughter had died, along with her husband and her mother. Two other daughters, ages four and seven, were injured.
'We don't know whose body is this and whose body is that,' said a neighbour, Abdallah Dardouna.
'There is no resistance, there is no Qassam, no Hamas, there is no one here. It's only civilians here.'
Another strike in Deir al-Balah hit a municipal building and killed at least three people, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. In Khan Younis, a strike killed at least three people, according to staff at Nasser Hospital.
Israel's military said in a statement it had struck over 90 militant targets over the past 48 hours, including command and control centres, tunnels and weapons.
The military also said it had intercepted a projectile fired from Gaza.
The war started when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, during an October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and took 250 people captive.
Many were eventually freed in ceasefire deals.
Israeli authorities have vowed to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 believed to be alive, and accept new ceasefire terms.
It cut off all supplies to Gaza more than a month ago.
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San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Palestinians say Israel and its allies fired on crowd near Gaza aid site. Hospital says 6 killed
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians say Israeli forces and allied local gunmen fired toward a crowd heading to an Israeli- and U.S.-supported food distribution center in the Gaza Strip early Monday. Gaza's Health Ministry said six people were killed. The gunmen appeared to be allied with the Israeli military, operating in close proximity to troops and retreating into an Israeli military zone in the southern city of Rafah after the crowd hurled stones at them, witnesses said. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel recently acknowledged supporting local armed groups opposed to Hamas. The latest in a string of shootings It was the latest in a number of shootings that have killed at least 127 people and wounded hundreds since the rollout of a new food distribution system, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. Israel and the United States say the new system is designed to circumvent Hamas, but it has been rejected by the U.N. and major aid groups. Experts have meanwhile warned that Israel's blockade and its ongoing military campaign have put Gaza at risk of famine. Palestinians say Israeli forces have repeatedly fired toward crowds heading to the food centers since they opened last month. In previous instances, the Israeli military has said it fired warning shots at people who approached its forces near the centers, which are in military zones off limits to independent media. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the Israeli- and U.S.-supported private contractor running the sites, says there has been no violence in or around the centers themselves. But GHF repeatedly warns would-be food recipients that stepping off the road designated by the military for people to reach the centers represents 'a great danger.' It paused delivery at its three distribution sites last week to hold discussions with the military about improving safety on the routes. GHF closed the Rafah site on Monday due to the 'chaos of the crowds,' according to a Facebook site associated with the group. A GHF spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Heba Joda, who was in the crowd Monday, said gunfire broke out at a roundabout where previous shootings have occurred, around a kilometer (half a mile) from the aid site. She said the shots came from the 'dangerous zone' where Israeli troops and their allies are stationed. She said she saw men from a local militia led by Yasser Abu Shabab trying to organize the crowds into lines on the road. When people pushed forward, the gunmen opened fire. People then hurled stones at them, forcing them to withdraw toward the Israeli positions, she said. The Abu Shabab group, which calls itself the Popular Forces, says it is guarding the surroundings of the GHF centers in southern Gaza. Aid workers say it has a long history of looting U.N. aid trucks. GHF has said it does not work with the Abu Shabab group. Hussein Shamimi, who was also in the crowd, said his 14-year-old cousin was among those killed. 'There was an ambush … the Israelis from one side and Abu Shabab from another,' he said. Mohamed Kabaga, a Palestinian displaced from northern Gaza, said he saw masked men firing toward the crowds after trying to organize them. 'They fired at us directly,' he said while being treated at Nasser Hospital, in the nearby city of Khan Younis. He had been shot in the neck, as were three other people seen by an Associated Press journalist at the hospital. Kabaga said he saw around 50 masked men with 4x4 vehicles in the area around the roundabout, close to Israeli military lines. "We didn't receive anything,' he said. 'They shot us.' 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Throughout the war, the U.N.-led network has delivered supplies at hundreds of distribution points around Gaza, meaning large crowds haven't had to trek for hours past Israeli troops to receive aid. Israel sealed off Gaza from all food, medicine and fuel at the beginning of March, shortly before it ended a ceasefire with Hamas. It began allowing small amounts of aid in last month, but U.N. agencies say they have struggled to deliver it because of Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting. The 20-month war rages on The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. They are still holding 55 hostages, more than half of them believed to be dead, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israel's military campaign has killed over 54,900 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up most of the dead. It does not say how many of those killed were civilians or combatants. The war has destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced some 90% of the population and left the territory almost completely reliant on international aid. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in return for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal. Israel says it will continue the war until all the captives are returned and Hamas is defeated or disarmed and sent into exile. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that even then, Israel will maintain open-ended control over Gaza and facilitate what he refers to as the voluntary emigration of much of its population to other countries, a plan rejected by most of the international community, including the Palestinians, who view it as a blueprint for their forcible expulsion. ___ Magdy reported from Cairo. ___
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
At least four killed by Israeli fire near Gaza food point, officials say
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The Reuters news agency reported that four people had been killed by the Israeli fire, while the Associated Press put the death toll at 'at least' five. The deaths bring the number of people who have been killed while trying to find food in Gaza since 27 May, when GHF became responsible for civilian food provision, to 110. More than 1,000 have been injured. Witnesses said Sunday's shooting in southern Gaza occurred at about 6am, when they had been told the site would open. Many had headed towards it early to try to get desperately needed food before the crowds. The military had announced on Friday that the sites would be open from 6am and that the area would be a closed military zone from 6pm until 6am. A GHF spokesperson said there had been 'no incident at or in [the] surrounding vicinity' of any distribution site. Adham Dahman, 30, who was at Nasser hospital with a bandage on his chin, told Associated Press that a tank had fired in their direction. 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Israel wants it to replace a system coordinated by the UN and international aid groups. The UN and other humanitarian organisations have rejected the new system, saying the GHF will not be able to meet the needs of Gaza's 2.3 million people and that it allows Israel to use food as a weapon to control the population. Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
Israeli bombing in Gaza ‘worse than ever': UK doctor after latest mission
On a typical day at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, Victoria Rose, a British surgeon, would wake up before dawn. 'Because the bombing would start at four,' she said, now back in London, having just wrapped up her third humanitarian mission to Gaza since Israel's war began in October 2023. Over almost four weeks in May, she usually operated on 12 or 13 patients per 14-hour shift, unless there was a mass casualty incident overnight, meaning even longer shifts and more patients. By comparison, in London hospitals, she treats a maximum of three patients per day. 'It's operating nonstop in Gaza,' she said. Recalling some of her many patients, she treated 11-year-old Adam al-Najjar, the sole surviving child of Dr Alaa al-Najjar, whose nine other children and husband, Hamdi, also a doctor, were killed in an attack in Khan Younis last month. She vividly remembers two brothers with lower limb injuries, Yakoob and Mohammed, who were the sole survivors of their family, and an eight-year-old girl named Aziza who was orphaned. 'She had a burn on her face and her shoulder, and somebody found her walking the streets and brought her in,' said Rose, who specialises in plastic and reconstructive surgery. Rose and a team of medics also worked tirelessly to save the leg of a seven-year-old girl who, after an explosion, 'was missing her knee … it was like looking at the back of her leg without the bone in'. Having cleaned the area, removed dead skin and muscle, and dressed the wound, the girl returned three more times for further treatment, but ultimately, her limb was amputated. Al Jazeera spoke with Dr Rose about the growing intensity of Israeli bombardment, the impact of malnutrition which has been exacerbated by a three-month aid blockade, deaths and gunshot wounds she saw among those who desperately tried to get rations via a new mechanism backed by the United States and Israel, and her sense of frustration that as the death toll rises and the scale of injuries is well documented, disbelief in Palestinian suffering prevails. Al Jazeera: How did you feel entering Gaza this time around? Victoria Rose: Definitely once we got in, the bombing was far worse than it's ever been, and it was far, far louder, closer, more constant than it's ever been. The drones – it was as if they were on me. They were constantly there and really loud to the point that it was difficult to have a conversation if you were outside. Al Jazeera: What do the types of injuries you saw reveal about the current intensity of the bombing? Rose: This time, the injuries seemed to be from the heart of an explosion. People had been blown up, and bits of them had been blown off. Last summer, it was far more shrapnel wounds – a bomb had gone off in the vicinity, and something had been whipped up and then it ejected at them in a missile-type fashion and hit them and done some damage to their bodies. Much more survivable, reconstructable-type injuries, whereas these appeared to be far more direct hits on people. Al Jazeera: You have volunteered three times during the genocide, including in March and August last year. The death toll, now at about 55,000, continues to rise at haste. Was this the most challenging trip? Rose: This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst. The volume of patients is more and the kids are more. The number of kids has gone up exponentially. They've doubled since the March (2024) trip – the number of children that I've seen. During the first trip (in March 2024), I thought I was seeing loads of children, but this trip surpassed that. Al Jazeera: How would you describe Nasser Hospital? Rose: It's a very similar scenario, very similar vibe to being in a hospital anywhere, but it's just so packed. It's everybody; it's like the whole population is in there. (Doctors are usually) very selective with the people that we hospitalise. They're normally older, or got cancer, or complications from diabetes or heart attacks – that's normally who gets hospital beds in the UK. But there, it could be everybody on your road. It's just normal people that have been blown up. Healthy people that are otherwise really fit and well, and now have been blown up. It's quite bizarre to hospitalise somebody that was fit yesterday and, well, now is missing an arm or part of an arm. Al Jazeera: You were in Gaza when people desperately trying to secure food aid through the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a new mechanism backed by Israel and the US, were attacked. Many were killed. You did some media interviews at the time. What did you witness and experience? Rose: The bulk of the victims had gunshot wounds. They were shot in the stomach, shot in the leg, shot in the arm. After the GHF shooting, when (the victims) all came in, immediately the next journalist (I spoke to) was saying to me that 'Israel has denied that they've shot anyone and you know, they're saying that it's the Palestinians shooting each other'. And then they sort of said, 'Nobody's been killed', and I was standing in the emergency department with 30 body bags, thinking, you can't lie like this. You just can't. Al Jazeera: Many in Gaza are vulnerable to starvation, and thousands of children are suffering from acute malnutrition, according to the United Nations. How does this affect patients and hospital staff? Rose: Everybody's lost weight. They will tell you, 'I am now five or 10 kg lower in weight.' My medical students I was there with in August, the girls are just so thin now. They're all in their 20s, and all of them looked really as if they'd lost significant amounts of weight. But the children are really small. They're really skinny. Sixty children have died at Nasser Hospital of malnutrition. It is mainly the children that are lactose intolerant or have some other disease as well, because none of the only formula milk that's getting in is suitable for children with lactose intolerance. Then you have children that have other diseases on top of that, which stop them from being able to take normal milk. That was quite shocking. The trauma patients, which is who I was seeing, were also really small. No fat on them at all, quite a bit of muscle wasting. And they didn't really heal very well. It seemed to take a lot longer this time than it did in August for wounds to heal. There were lots of infections, a huge number of infections; with malnutrition, you get a dampening of the immune system. It's one of the areas that's affected the most. You can't mount a good immune response. On top of that, all the wounds were dirty anyway because everyone's living in a tent and there's no sanitation, no clean water. You're starting in a really difficult position, and then you've run out of antibiotics. We only had three types of antibiotics that we could use, and none of them would have been the first-line choice if we'd have been in the UK. Al Jazeera: How would you describe the morale among the doctors you worked with? Rose: Really bad now. So many of them said to me, 'I'd rather die than carry on.' So many of them want a ceasefire, and I think would be prepared to do whatever it takes to get a ceasefire now. They are at their lowest. They've all moved 15 times. They've all lost significant members of the family – these guys have lost kids. Their houses are completely destroyed. It's really, really difficult times for them. Al Jazeera: What are your fears for Gaza? Rose: It's a man-made humanitarian crisis, so it could be man-stopped, and that's what needs to happen. This could be turned off immediately if people put enough pressure on the right governments, the right leaders. I think, if we don't turn it off soon, there won't be a Gaza and there certainly won't be Palestinians in Gaza. It's very difficult to have any conversations with Palestinians about the future because they can't really see it. Note: This interview was lightly edited for clarity and brevity.