Israel is facing mounting international pressure, including from its main ally the U.S., to take extra measures to protect Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip as the death toll rises and fighting intensifies near hospitals.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said Israel shelled the Shifa hospital buildings five times: “One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack.”
Bombardment of the coastal enclave over the past five weeks has brought the death toll to more than 11,000, according to Gaza health officials.
On Friday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, on a visit to India, made the harshest statements in recent memory about the plight of civilians caught in the crossfire:
Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks.
French President Emmanuel Macron said in a BBC interview published on Friday that Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians:
“De facto – today, civilians are bombed – de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop.”
Fighting intensified overnight Saturday and Sunday around Gaza City’s crowded hospitals, which Palestinian officials said had been bombed and shelled.
“Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals,” said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Al Shifa hospital.
Early Friday morning, an attack launched on the courtyard of the largest Al Shifa hospital, damaged an Indonesian hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi Children’s Cancer Hospital.
Israel has continuously attacked northern Gaza on the justification that it is where Hamas militants are centred. Israel also claims that Hamas hides weapons in tunnels under hospitals. Hamas denies this. Eilon Levy said that Hamas headquarters is located in the basement of Shifa Hospital, which means that this facility could also be subject to attacks by the Israeli army.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, said health workers at Shifa had been forced to leave the hospital:
Many of the thousands sheltering at the hospital are forced to evacuate due to security risks, while many still remain there.
Israeli forces opened fire at Al-Quds Hospital and fierce clashes broke out, killing one person and wounding 28, most of them children, according to the Palestinian Red Cross.
Israeli army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht said that Israel “does not fire on hospitals. If we see Hamas terrorists firing from hospitals we’ll do what we need to do. We’re aware of the sensitivity (of hospitals), but again, if we see Hamas terrorists, we’ll kill them.”
