Israel struck Gaza’s last functioning hospital with missiles on Sunday as its military announced the expansion of a ground offensive throughout the besieged Palestinian territory.
Authorities at Al Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital had moved the patients out after getting a call from a person who identified as an Israeli security official shortly before the attack.
One patient, however, died during the evacuation as medical staff were unable to provide urgent care. The Israeli attack knocked the hospital out of operation, health officials said.
The attack on the hospital, run by the Diocese of Jerusalem, came on Palm Sunday, which commemorates Jesus Christ’s entry into Jerusalem.
The Baptist Church in Jerusalem said that the warning to evacuate the hospital came barely 20 minutes before the missiles struck.
“We call upon all governments and people of goodwill to intervene to stop all kinds of attacks on medical and humanitarian institutions,” the church said in a statement.
The Israeli military claimed that it had taken steps to reduce harm to civilians before it attacked the hospital, which it further claimed was being used by Hamas militants.
Pictures circulating on social media purportedly showed dozens of people leaving the premises, with some assisting patients on hospital beds.
“The scene was scary, from night until now, I haven’t slept a single minute out of fear. All night, glass shattered at us inside,” said an injured man named Mohammed Abu Nasser.
The hospital’s director, Dr Fadel Naim, said that the emergency room, pharmacy and surrounding buildings were severely damaged in the Israeli missile attack, impacting over 100 patients and dozens of medical staff.
A few hours later, Israeli forces targeted a car in the Deir al-Balah area of central Gaza, killing six brothers and their friend, according to staff at the morgue which received their bodies.
In all, at least 14 Palestinians, including the head of the police in Khan Younis, were killed in separate Israeli attacks across Gaza on Sunday.
The attacks came barely hours after Israel’s defence minister said military activity would rapidly expand across Gaza, and that Palestinians would have to evacuate from “fighting zones”.
The military announced on Saturday it would soon expand “vigorously” in most of the besieged coastal territory as it cut off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza. Israel last week deployed troops to clear a new “security corridor” referred to as Morag between Rafah and Khan Younis.
The Rafah municipality called Israel’s actions a “flagrant breach of international legitimacy”.
The Palestinian foreign ministry and Hamas condemned the attack on Al Ahli Hospital and said Israel was destroying Gaza’s healthcare system.
Israeli forces have killed over 50,000 Palestinians in Gaza since Benjamin Netanyahu launched a war on the territory nearly 18 months ago, according to the local health ministry, run by Hamas. They have reduced much of the territory to rubble and displaced most of its 2.2 million population, according to aid groups and the UN.
Israel launched the war after nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage during a Hamas attack in the south of the country.
A ceasefire mediated by the US earlier this year was broken after Israel enforced a total blockade on the entry of food, fuel and medicines into Gaza and renewed deadly attacks.
