Tanks outside Rantisi Children’s Hospital in Gaza
Shelling, gunfire and explosions occurred outside a hospital in Gaza City on Friday as Israeli forces continued their ground operations against Hamas.
Videos on social media showed panicked and injured people running for cover.
Israel has always maintained that Hamas fighters were hiding in the tunnels beneath the hospital and that the building was a legitimate target.
The Red Cross warned that Gaza’s hospitals had “reached the point of no return”.
Additionally, workers attempting to deliver medical supplies witnessed a “horrifying” scene and said the destruction was “unbearable”.
The Hamas-led Health Ministry said 11,078 people had been killed and more than 27,000 injured across Gaza since the start of the war.
Israel’s air strikes and ground operations in Gaza followed Hamas’s unprecedented large-scale attack on southern Israel on October 7.
Israel on Friday night revised down its death toll from the attack to about 1,200 from an earlier estimate of 1,400.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lior Hyat said the revised figures were due to the fact that many bodies were not immediately identified after the attack, adding: “Currently, we believe that these bodies are not Israeli casualties.” We believe it belongs to terrorists.”
Reports began emerging early Friday that Israeli forces in Gaza were besieging several hospitals in the city.
One source inside Al-Quds Hospital told the BBC he heard “continuous crashes and explosions”, while a witness near Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital said Israeli forces were shouting through megaphones. He said he had ordered everyone other than medical staff and patients to leave. On the premises.
In one video posted on social media and seen by the BBC, a large group of civilians, many holding white flags, are seen leaving the courtyard of another al-Nasr hospital when gunshots ring out. , footage shows people panicking. I’m running for support.
Videos posted on social media showed the moments after missiles and mortars hit the courtyard of Al-Shifa, the city’s largest hospital, as well as the death of a child and police outside an outpatient clinic. There was also a video showing people panicking.
Dr. Ashraf al-Khudra, a spokesman for the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, said up to five Israeli military attacks damaged parts of al-Shifa hospital, including the maternity ward.
“If Al-Shifa Hospital closes, it will be a disaster for the people of Gaza City,” Dr. Al-Qudra said, adding that the workers were afraid.
The Hamas government reported 13 deaths in al-Shifa, but al-Qudra said he was aware of one death and could not confirm the others.
By Friday evening, tensions in Gaza City remained high.
People inside Al Shifa say explosions and gunfire can still be heard around the hospital, and Israeli tanks are about 100 meters away.
The hospital director told the BBC that around 15,000 people remain in the building, most of them elderly and sick people who are unable to travel further south, where Israel has promised they will be safer. he said. He added that staff were overwhelmed by the number of injuries and had to treat people in hallways and on the floor.
image source, Getty Images
Al-Shifa, where an estimated 15,000 people have evacuated, is Gaza City’s largest hospital.
Fighting around al-Quds Hospital also intensified as night fell. The BBC understands that Israeli naval vessels were involved as well as the tanks that surrounded the hospital.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking at the UN Security Council on Friday, called the situation on the ground in Gaza “inexplicable.”
Dr Tedros said hospital corridors were “filled with the injured, sick and dying”, morgues were “overflowing” and surgeries were being performed without anesthesia.
He added that half of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals are not functioning at all, and the remaining hospitals are operating “far beyond capacity.” He said civilians in Gaza “are not responsible for this violence, but they are suffering in ways that none of us in this room can imagine.”
A spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the IDF “will not fire at hospitals” but will “do what is necessary” if Hamas fires from inside the hospital grounds.
Asked what the plan was to deal with patients in the hospital who are unable to walk or who are on IV fluids and have broken bones, he said: We’re telling Hamas to move people south. ”
Hamas has previously denied claims that it has a command post beneath a hospital in Gaza and uses it as a shield.
The US said Israel had agreed to a four-hour daily military pause in northern Gaza for humanitarian purposes, but fighting remained intense on Friday.
