DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza (AP) — A wave of Israeli strikes throughout Gaza on Sunday hit a hospital, a municipal constructing, a house and a automobile, killing a minimum of 21 individuals, together with youngsters, as Israel vowed to expand its security presence within the small coastal strip.
A predawn strike on Al-Ahli Hospital, in Gaza Metropolis, was the most recent of a number of assaults on the final main hospital offering crucial healthcare in northern Gaza.
Hospital director Dr. Fadel Naim mentioned the emergency room, pharmacy and surrounding buildings have been severely broken, affecting over 100 sufferers and dozens of workers. He mentioned in a put up on X they’d been warned prematurely.
One affected person, a lady, died through the evacuation as a result of workers have been unable to supply pressing care, Gaza’s Well being Ministry mentioned.
Strikes on Palm Sunday
The hospital is run by the Diocese of Jerusalem, which condemned the assault, saying in a press release it occurred on “Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Holy Week, probably the most sacred week of the Christian 12 months.” Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.
Israel mentioned it struck a command and management centre utilized by Hamas on the hospital, with out offering proof. Hamas in a press release denied the allegations.
Related Press video confirmed the hospital’s caved-in roof surrounded by particles. The well being ministry’s director normal, Dr. Munir al-Boursh, mentioned sufferers had been carried outdoors in beds and slept within the streets.
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“Nothing was left protected. Nothing was left protected contained in the hospital, or throughout Gaza,” mentioned Mohammad Abu Nasser, an injured man who sat on his mattress open air and regarded on the destruction.
The well being ministry mentioned the hospital was briefly out of service and sufferers have been transferred to different hospitals in Gaza Metropolis. The help group Medical Assist for Palestinians known as it the fifth assault on the hospital for the reason that warfare started.
Hospitals have particular safety below worldwide legislation. Israel has besieged and raided them, some a number of instances, and struck a number of ones whereas accusing Hamas of utilizing them as cowl for its fighters.
Final month Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the most important in southern Gaza, killing two individuals and inflicting a big fireplace, the well being ministry mentioned. The ability had been overwhelmed with dead and wounded when Israel ended a two-month ceasefire final month with a shock wave of airstrikes.
Charity employees killed
Hours later, a strike on a automotive in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed a minimum of seven individuals together with six brothers, in response to workers at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which obtained the our bodies. The youngest brother was 10.
Their father, Ibrahim Abu Mahadi, mentioned his sons labored for a charity that distributes meals to Palestinians. “For what sin have been they killed?” he mentioned.
AP reporters noticed the mangled, bloodied automotive as family wept over the our bodies.
An airstrike Sunday afternoon hit a home within the city Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing a minimum of seven individuals together with two ladies, in response to the Indonesian hospital, which obtained the our bodies. A pregnant girl was rescued from the rubble.
One other strike in Deir al-Balah hit a municipal constructing Sunday afternoon and killed a minimum of three individuals, in response to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. In Khan Younis, a strike killed a minimum of three individuals, in response to workers at Nasser Hospital.
Israel’s navy mentioned in a press release it had struck over 90 militant targets over the previous 48 hours together with command and management facilities, tunnels and weapons. The navy additionally mentioned it had intercepted a projectile fired from Gaza.
The warfare began when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 individuals, principally civilians, throughout an Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel and took 250 individuals captive. Many have been ultimately freed in ceasefire offers.
Israeli authorities have vowed to strain Hamas to launch the remaining 59 hostages, 24 believed to be alive, and settle for proposed new ceasefire phrases. It lower off all provides to Gaza over a month in the past.
Greater than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive, in response to Gaza’s Well being Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians in its depend however says greater than half of the lifeless have been ladies and youngsters.
Magdy reported from Cairo.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
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