Children among dozens killed as Israel attacks Gaza
Al Jazeera :
The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, encircled by Israeli drones and tanks, has pleaded with the international community to intervene to protect the northern Gaza hospital as Israel ordered patients as well as hospital staff to evacuate.
The hospital remains one of the few still operational in the area, where only a handful of doctors remain to treat patients amid a severe shortage or complete depletion of essential medical supplies.
“We are now facing direct bombing of the intensive care unit again,” Dr Hussam Abu Safia said in a video statement on Saturday night, calling on the international community to protect the hospital and its 66 remaining patients as well as medical staff.
“The nursery, maternity, and all departments of the hospital are being targeted by the occupation forces with all types of weapons, including sniper fire, tank shells, and quadcopters,” he added.
“For more than an hour now, shells are raining down on us from every corner, mile, and direction.”
Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from nearby Deir el-Balah, said, “What we are seeing now is a deliberate attack on the health facility.”
“The Israeli military has ordered evacuations from the hospital, but they have also created an intimidating environment that makes people feel it’s unsafe to leave.”
Mahmoud added that contact with those besieged at the hospital had been lost overnight.
Footage verified by Al Jazeera showed wounded Palestinians taking shelter in the hospital’s corridors, away from the windows, after Israeli forces opened fire on the facility. Despite that, Mahmoud said, “many injuries” were reported as bullets penetrated the walls, also damaging equipment.
Al Jazeera Arabic correspondents in Gaza also said they lost touch with journalists inside the hospital amid the ongoing assault. According to the channel, al-Awda Hospital located in the Jabalia refugee camp also came under attack.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 32 Palestinians and wounded 54 others across the Gaza Strip in the last 24-hour reporting period, according to the latest daily update by the Health Ministry in the territory.
Israeli forces launch more attacks on the barely functioning Kamal Adwan Hospital in besieged North Gaza, after ordering people inside and near the facility to evacuate. Our correspondents say the nearby al-Awda Hospital is also under attack.
Israeli forces have also bombed yet another school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza City, killing at least eight Palestinians. Another nine people, including four children, reported killed in separate attacks in north Gaza.
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