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Gaza City hospital hit, civil defence officials say, as Israel intensifies military operations Airstrike destroys parts of Gaza City hospital as Israel intensifies offensive
(about 4 hours later)
Al-Ahli hospital struck, says Gaza’s civil defence agency, amid widening Israeli offensive that has cut off access to southern city of Rafah Civil defence agency says al-Ahli hospital hit as IDF operations cut off access to southern city of Rafah
An Israeli airstrike destroyed parts of a hospital in Gaza City early on Sunday, its civil defence agency said, as Israel seized a corridor further south in the war-battered Palestinian territory and said it planned to expand its military offensive. An Israeli airstrike destroyed parts of a hospital in Gaza City early on Sunday as Israel continued its military offensive in the war-battered Palestinian territory and cut off access to the southern city of Rafah.
There were no reports of casualties in the strike and the Israeli military told Agence France-Presse it was looking into the incident. The Palestinian civil defence agency said Israel’s air force fired missiles at al-Ahli hospital, also known as the Baptist or Ahli Arab hospital. It is the only hospital still functioning in Gaza City after the destruction of medical facilities in the northern area of the strip.
The civil defence agency in the Hamas-run territory said Israel’s air force targeted a building of the Al-Ahli hospital, also known as the Baptist or Ahli Arab hospital, in Gaza City after midnight. The agency said the bombing “led to the destruction of the surgery building and the oxygen generation station for the intensive care units”.
The airstrike came “minutes after the [Israeli] army’s warning to evacuate this building of patients, the injured and their companions”, the agency said in a statement. “The bombing led to the destruction of the surgery building and the oxygen generation station for the intensive care units,” it added. There were no reports of casualties in the strike but the Gaza health ministry said one child died during the rushed evacuation as they were unable to provide urgent care.
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 Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023. In a statement confirming the strike, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) alleged the hospital was a command and control centre used by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza.
On Saturday, Israel announced it has completed construction of a new security corridor that cuts off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, as the military said it would soon expand operations in most of the small coastal territory. Palestinians were further squeezed into shrinking areas of land. “The compound was used by Hamas terrorists to plan and execute terror attacks against Israeli civilians and IDF troops,” the military said in its statement.
“Soon, IDF [Israel Defense Forces] operations will intensify and expand to other areas throughout most of Gaza, and you will need to evacuate the combat zones,” defence minister Israel Katz said in a statement. According to a statement by the Palestinian civil defence agency, doctors and patients were given only around 20 minutes’ warning to evacuate the building before the strike. Video footage circulating online appeared to show people fleeing the building as it was engulfed in smoke and flames. The IDF said it had taken steps to “mitigate harm to civilians” and issued “advance warnings”.
“The IDF has now completed its takeover of the Morag axis, which crosses Gaza between Rafah and Khan Yunis, turning the entire area between the Philadelphi Route [along the border with Egypt] and Morag into part of the Israeli security zone,” Katz said. The Gaza health ministry called it a “horrific crime” and said Israel was deliberately destroying Gaza’s healthcare system.
The statement urged Palestinians to stand up and remove Hamas and release the remaining hostages, saying: “This is the only way to stop the war.” There was no immediate Hamas response. The al-Ahli hospital is run by the Anglican Church in Jerusalem. In a statement, the episcopal diocese of Jerusalem said it was “appalled” at the airstrike, and said it was the fifth time the hospital had been targeted.
Israeli troops were deployed last week to the new security corridor referred to as Morag, the name of a Jewish settlement that once stood between Rafah and Khan Younis, after the army ordered sweeping evacuations covering most of Rafah, indicating it could soon launch another major ground operation. 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 7 October 2023. The Israeli military has accused Hamas of embedding military operations in hospitals and civilian buildings, which the group has denied.
In a statement, the Rafah municipality called Israel’s actions a “flagrant breach of international legitimacy”. On Saturday Israel said it had completed its takeover of a new “security zone” that cut off the southern city of Rafah from the rest of Gaza, part of a wider Israeli operation to establish and expand a security buffer zone across southernmost Gaza where Palestinians are banned from entering.
Israel has vowed to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages, 24 of them believed to be alive, and accept proposed new ceasefire terms. The defence minister, Israel Katz, announced that Israel’s military had seized the corridor between Rafah and Khan Younis, which he referred to as the “Morag axis”, giving Israel effective control of the Rafah. Evacuation orders were also given for several neighbourhoods in Khan Younis on Saturday night.
Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has also imposed a month-long blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left the territory’s roughly 2 million Palestinians facing acute shortages as supplies dwindle — a tactic that rights groups say is a war crime. The prewar population of Rafah was about 275,000, which earlier this year expanded to an estimated 1.4 million as Palestinians were displaced from north and central Gaza by Israeli security operations.
Israel has claimed that enough supplies entered Gaza during the two-month ceasefire that it shattered last month. Aid groups have disputed that. But since the breakdown of the ceasefire with Hamas in March, Israel has resumed its offensive with vigour and vowed to seize large parts of Gaza to pressure Hamas to release the remaining hostages and accept new ceasefire terms.
Netanyahu has said Morag would be “a second Philadelphi corridor,” referring to the Gaza side of the border with Egypt farther south, which has been under Israeli control since May 2024. Israel has also reasserted control of the Netzarim corridor, which cuts off Gaza’s northern third from the rest of the territory. Last week Israel issued sweeping evacuation orders for most of Rafah, once again displacing swathes of Gaza’s population of 2 million people into shrinking areas of land, where most are living in squalid tents or the rubble of their homes. In a statement, the Rafah municipality called Israel’s actions a “flagrant breach of international legitimacy”.
The corridors, coupled with a buffer zone that Israel has razed and expanded, give it more than 50% control of the territory. The establishment of Israeli control over crucial corridors in the south and northern areas of Gaza, as well as the expanding security buffer zone, means it now controls over 50% of the strip.
Katz said Palestinians interested in “voluntarily” relocating to other countries would be able to as part of a proposal by Donald Trump. Palestinians have rejected the proposal and expressed their determination to remain in their homeland. Katz vowed to continue to expand operations “vigorously” across the rest of Gaza. “IDF activity will soon expand strongly to additional locations throughout most of Gaza and you will have to evacuate the fighting zones,” he said.
Trump and Israeli officials have not said how they would respond if Palestinians refuse to leave Gaza. But Human Rights Watch and other groups say the plan would amount to “ethnic cleansing” — the forcible relocation of the civilian population of an ethnic group from a geographic area. The statement by Katz urged Palestinians to stand up and remove Hamas and release the remaining hostages, saying: “This is the only way to stop the war.” There was no immediate Hamas response.
Many Palestinians have been crowding into squalid tent camps or the rubble of their previous homes, often displacing multiple times in response to Israel’s evacuation orders since the Hamas-led attack on 7 Octover, 2023, killed some 1,200 people, many of them civilians, and sparked the war. Katz said Palestinians interested in “voluntarily” relocating to other countries would be able to as part of a proposal by Donald Trump, the US president. Palestinians have rejected the proposal and expressed their determination to remain in their homeland, while Human Rights Watch and other groups say the plan would amount to “ethnic cleansing”.
Israel on Saturday ordered the evacuation of areas east of Khan Younis ahead of an attack. Military spokesperson Avichay Adraee added that militants had fired rockets into Israel from these areas. Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government has imposed a month-long blockade on food, fuel and humanitarian aid that has left people in Gaza facing acute shortages of food, water and medicines as supplies dwindle, a tactic that rights groups say amounts to a war crime. Israel has claimed that enough supplies have entered Gaza since the breakdown of the ceasefire, a claim widely disputed by aid groups.
Hamas has said the bombardment poses risks to the hostages as well. On Saturday, the family of the last living American held in Gaza responded to the release of a new video showing Edan Alexander speaking under duress. Since the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 on southern Israel, which killed about 1,200 people, Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 50,000 people, most of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
“When you sit down to mark Passover, remember that this is not a holiday of freedom as long as Edan and the other 58 hostages are not home,” the family said in a statement.
Families and supporters again rallied in Tel Aviv for a deal to bring everyone home.
The 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel, in which Israel says 1,200 people, the majority of them civilians, were killed and a further 250 taken captive, was the trigger for the conflict in Gaza, the worst war between Israel and the Palestinians in more than 70 years of fighting.
Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed more than 50,000 people, the majority of them civilians, according to the territory’s health ministry.
With Associated Press and Agence France-Presse