Israeli missiles strike Gaza hospital, patients evacuated
CAIRO—Two Israeli missiles hit a building inside a main Gaza hospital on Sunday, destroying the emergency and reception department and damaging other structures in a strike which Israel said was against Hamas fighters exploiting the facility.
Health officials at the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist hospital evacuated the patients from the building after one person said he received a call from someone who identified himself with the Israeli security shortly before the attack took place.
No casualties were reported, according to the civil emergency service.
The Israeli military said in a statement it had taken steps to reduce harm to civilians before it struck the compound, which was being used by Hamas militants to plan attacks.
Images circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed dozens of people leaving the premises, with some appearing to be dragging sick relatives on hospital beds.
Condemned
The Palestinian foreign ministry and Hamas condemned the attack at Al-Ahli and said in a statement that Israel was destroying Gaza’s health-care system.
Israel says Hamas systematically exploits civilian structures, including hospitals, which the militant group denies. Israeli forces have carried out numerous raids in medical facilities in the enclave.
In October 2023, a deadly blast at a parking lot in the compound of Al-Ahli hospital was blamed by Hamas on an Israeli airstrikes. Israel said a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic jihad group had caused the blast.
The militant group denied it was responsible. An investigation by Human Rights Watch later concluded the 2023 explosion was most likely caused by a failed Palestinian rocket launch.
Separate strikes in the enclave on Sunday killed the head of a police station in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Hamas-run enclave, according to Hamas media.
At least eight more people, including a woman, were killed further north, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa. There was no immediate Israeli comment on those reports.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
