The Israeli army’s incursion on Tuesday, led to the cessation of operations at one of the few remaining hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, according to the facility’s director.
One of the last remaining hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip stopped operating on Tuesday after being stormed by the Israeli army, its director said.
Fadel Naim told the media Israeli troops had attacked the Al-Ahli hospital and arrested doctors, medical staff and patients, destroying part of the building’s grounds.
Israel’s attack has “put the hospital out of action”, he said. “We can’t receive any patients or injured.”
At least four people who were wounded by Israeli fire on Monday died on Tuesday after being injured in the Al-Ahli assault, he said.
“According to our information, there are dozens of wounded in the surrounding streets,” he said.
Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly been hit by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization said the Al-Ahli hospital was receiving “critical patients” from Al-Shifa for surgery.
The Al-Shifa emergency department, devastated by Israeli bombardments, is “a blood bath” and “in need of resuscitation”, the WHO said.
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, said on Tuesday another hospital in northern Gaza, Al Awda in the Jabalia area, had been turned “into a barracks” by the Israeli army.
He said the army was holding 240 people in the hospital, “including 80 medical staff and 40 patients,” and had arrested its director, doctor Ahmad Mhanna.
Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the rising civilian death toll and destruction of hospitals in Gaza.
Khalil Wakim, with AFP
