At least six people, including a doctor and a child, were killed in an Israeli attack on a hospital in southern Gaza on Wednesday night, the Palestinian Authority said.
The attack on Nasser Hospital shortly after midnight hit the facility’s surgical department, a Gaza Civil Defense spokesman said. Eze Eddin Abu Sabah said the attack destroyed part of the hospital and left charred debris scattered among the destroyed units.
The attack killed 52-year-old Dr. Risk Abu Shaira and a 13-year-old boy who was supposed to undergo surgery, Abu Sabah said. A total of 40 people, including two doctors, were injured in the Israeli airstrike and are in critical condition.
“People all over the world…where should the people of Gaza go? Tents are flooding, cliffs are collapsing on children, hospitals are being bombed with people inside. There is no time to dry blankets or tears,” Dr. Mounir al-Boursh, head of Gaza’s Ministry of Health, wrote on Facebook.
“Gaza is not asking the world to count the dead… it is asking for protection for those who are still alive,” he added.
Video footage from inside the hospital showed two bombs, one of which failed to explode. The bomb’s label identified it as a GBU-39/B, a 250-pound American-made bomb supplied to Israel.
“I was sleeping and suddenly I was covered in dust and glass,” said Atiyah Abu Bashir, an elderly patient at the hospital. “I couldn’t walk because I had just had surgery.”
Despite a nominal U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreed more than a year ago, Israel continues to carry out almost daily airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. According to the United Nations, Israeli forces have killed more than 1,400 people in the Gaza Strip since the ceasefire, and there are no fully functioning hospitals in the devastated enclave.
“They say there is a ceasefire. Where is the ceasefire? Since the ceasefire there have been more massacres,” said Mariam Abu Khattab, whose brother died in the strike. “Carnage takes place every day in our markets, in our universities, in our streets. Donkey carts have served us better than the rest of the world.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that it targeted Mohammad Abu Ismail, commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade, as well as “additional terrorists hiding inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.” The Israel Defense Forces said he planned and carried out attacks on Israeli troops and civilians.
CNN has contacted the IDF to ask whether Abu Ismail was killed in the airstrike and what steps were taken to reduce the risk to civilians.
A US-led peace commission tasked with monitoring a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip on Thursday called on Israel and Hamas to honor their commitments under the Comprehensive Peace Plan and protect civilians after the attack on Nasser hospital. It also called on all parties to “cede the necessary authority and operational space” to the board to implement plans to provide health care in secure, demilitarized facilities.
Earlier this week, the council criticized Israel for its “inadequate” response to the Gaza floods. Seasonal rains have flooded tens of thousands of tents in the coastal enclave, where nearly 2 million Palestinians have fled, according to the United Nations.
“The emergency entry and distribution of essential shelter, sanitation, drainage and other winter supplies is critical to protect civilians,” the committee said in a statement Monday, calling on Israel to allow more temporary shelter, waste management and other supplies to be admitted.
Israel has announced that more than 91,000 tents have entered the Gaza Strip ahead of winter, but has refused to allow heavy equipment needed for large-scale cleanup and debris removal operations.
“Reconstruction of Gaza can only begin after Hamas is completely disarmed,” said Israel’s Gaza Strip Government Activities Coordinator.
