Israeli airstrikes hit Gaza’s biggest hospital, the Al Shifa, on Friday, killing one person and wounding others sheltering there, Palestinian officials said, one of several hospitals reported struck at dawn as Israel battles Hamas in the heart of the enclave.
Officials said other strikes had damaged parts of the Indonesian Hospital and hit vehicles outside the Rantissi cancer hospital in the northern part of Gaza, where Israel says Hamas militants who attacked it last month are concentrated.
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Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken up positions around the Rantissi, Al-Quds and Nasser Children’s hospitals, raising concern for patients, doctors and evacuees there, medical staff said.
“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals, on Rantissi, Nasser hospitals and on Al Shifa,” Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Gaza’s main Shifa hospital, told Reuters.
Featured VideoWARNING: This story contains distressing images | Israel has agreed to daily four-hour pauses in bombing so civilians can make their way south out of Gaza City. There is now a daily exodus of tens of thousands of people heading south who end up in tents with many fearing infectious disease.
The White House said on Thursday that Israel agreed to pause military operations in parts of north Gaza though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox News the battle against Hamas continues except “in specific locations for a given period of a few hours here or a few hours there.”
Israel did not immediately comment but says it does not target civilians and goes to great lengths to avoid hitting them. It says Hamas militants have hidden command centres and tunnels beneath schools, hospitals and mosques.
Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy posted a statement saying: “Your daily reminder that Hamas HQ is located in the basement of the Shifa Hospital, and that under international law, this exposes it to lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.”
The Israeli assault was triggered after about 1,400 people, mostly civilians including several Canadians, were killed and about 240 taken hostage by Hamas in an Oct. 7 cross-border raid.
Saudi crown prince calls for war’s end
Deadly airstrikes on refugee camps, a medical convoy and near hospitals have already prompted fierce arguments among some of Israel’s Western allies over its military’s adherence to international law.
As well, leaders in the Middle East have spoken out on the conflict in the past 24 hours, including Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, who called for an end to the war.
“We condemn what the Gaza Strip is facing from military assault, targeting of civilians, the violations of international law by the Israeli occupation authorities,” Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman said during an African-Saudi summit held in the kingdom’s capital, Riyadh.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar were meeting in Cairo, meanwhile, with both countries hoping to mediate a de-escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip, the provision of aid and the release of Israeli hostages.
Featured VideoSitting on the edges of the Israel-Hamas war is what’s been called the Axis of Resistance, a loose coalition of Iran-backed entities, including Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen. CBC chief correspondent Adrienne Arsenault breaks down the conditions that could cause the group to engage in a wider war and the firepower behind it.
Iran on Thursday night warned the scale of civilian suffering caused in Gaza would inevitably lead to an expansion of the conflict.
“Due to the expansion of the intensity of the war against Gaza’s civilian residents, expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable,” said Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.
Iran supports Hamas but says it did not play any role in the militants’ bloody attack on Oct. 7. Iran also backs the Hezbollah, a Lebanese militant group that has deep ties with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, another Palestinian faction in Gaza that is also backed by Iran.
Hezbollah’s leader said last week that all options were “on the table” concerning Israel but stopped short of declaring all-out war.
The Sunday Magazine14:18The key role that Qatar plays in the Israel-Hamas war
Featured VideoAs international leaders race to get hostages and civilians out of Gaza amid Israel’s ground invasion, Qatar has emerged as a key diplomatic player. The Gulf nation helped broker the deal to open the Rafah border crossing and is leading negotiations to release hostages from Gaza. But some are also calling into question Qatar’s cozy relationship with groups like Hamas. Rebecca Zandbergen speaks with Younes Zangiabadi, a Middle East expert and deputy director at the North American think tank Institute For Peace & Diplomacy, about Qatar’s role in this conflict and what could come next.
‘No way that we can evacuate’
Palestinian officials said 10,812 Gaza residents had been killed as of Thursday, about 40 per cent of them children, in air and artillery strikes.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesman for the Gaza health ministry, said Israel had bombed buildings of Al Shifa hospital five times since Thursday night.
“They shelled the maternity department and the outpatient clinics building. One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack,” he told Reuters.
Featured VideoRows upon rows of tents populate a makeshift encampment in Khan Younis, Gaza, where families whose lives have been disrupted by the Israel-Hamas war have fled and wait for aid. Many struggle for food and clean water, with one man saying on Thursday he is living ‘by the hour … not even by the day, but by the hour.’
In the wake of the blasts, witnesses said many people were starting to leave the grounds of the facility, fearing further strikes.
But Qidra said it was impossible to clear it completely.
“There is no way that we can evacuate, there is no practical way of doing it too. We are talking about 45 babies in incubators, 52 children in intensive care units, hundreds of wounded and patients, and tens of thousands of displaced people,” he said.
Palestinian media showed video footage of the aftermath of the Al Shifa strike, with people shouting and crying and several figures covered with blood. Reuters confirmed the location as the covered, outdoor area near the hospital’s outpatient department.
Palestinian Health Minister Mai Alkaila said an adult was killed and a child was wounded at Al Shifa, one of several medical facilities hit.
A person who said they were a member of staff of Nasser Children’s Hospital posted an appeal on social media.
“We are blockaded inside the hospital by tanks, and we are exposed to heavy fire against us. We don’t have electricity, no oxygen for patients, no fresh water or salt. The situation here is very difficult and dangerous,” it said.
Gaza’s health ministry has said 18 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals and 40 other health centres were out of service either due to damage from shelling or lack of fuel.
“With ongoing strikes and fighting nearby [Al Shifa], we are gravely concerned about the well-being of thousands of civilians there, many children among them, seeking medical care and shelter,” Human Rights Watch posted on social media.
Qidra said Al-Rantisi Pediatric Hospital and Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital “have been witnessing a series of direct attacks and bombardments” on Friday. He said strikes on the hospital grounds at Al-Rantisi set vehicles on fire but they had been partly extinguished.