At least 500 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on the al-Ahli al-Arab hospital in Gaza City.
“A new war crime has been committed by the Israeli occupation on the hospital, which housed hundreds of people fleeing their homes, as well as the sick and injured,” said Salam Marouf, head of the government media office in the besieged coastal enclave.
“We saw horrifying images in the hospital,” Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Wael al-Dahdouh said in the aftermath of the air strike that targeted al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City.
“[There are] body parts and dismembered corpses of children and women, young and old.”
At the time of the strike, the hospital was giving treatment and shelter to hundreds of Palestinians wounded and displaced by Israel’s ongoing bombardment campaign since 7 October. The air strike on Tuesday hit the courtyard of the Anglican-run al-Ahli Arab Hospital, which was filled with people at the time. Paramedics and residents were seen rushing people to Al-Shifa Hospital after the strike.
The World Health Organization has issued a statement condemning a deadly strike on a hospital in the Gaza Strip and demanded the immediate protection of civilians and health care givers in the Palestinian enclave.
“The hospital was operational, with patients, health- and care-givers, and internally-displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries.”
The hospital was one of 20 in the north of the Gaza Strip facing evacuation orders from the Israeli military, the WHO said.
“The order for evacuation has been impossible to carry out given the current insecurity, critical condition of many patients, and lack of ambulances, staff, health system bed capacity, and alternative shelter for those displaced.
“WHO calls for the immediate active protection of civilians and health care. Evacuation orders must be reversed. International humanitarian law must be abided by, which means health care must be actively protected and never targeted.”
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