ISRAELI SHELLS BRING DEATH TO DOORSTEP OF RED CRESCENT
▶ Video from Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis shows paramedics scouring neighbourhood for survivors
Twenty people were killed and many wounded by Israeli shelling outside the Palestine Red Crescent Society-run Al Amal Hospital in the southern Gazan city of Khan Younis yesterday, the Health Ministry said.
A video published by the PRSC showed bodies on the ground as paramedics and civilians hurried to assist survivors with stretchers.
It was not clear exactly how many people were killed or injured.
Al Amal’s roof was damaged by shelling on Tuesday.
At least 14,000 displaced people are sheltering in the hospital and the adjacent PRCS headquarters, the organisation said.
Earlier yesterday, dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on central Gaza’s Bureij and Al Maghazi refugee camps, witnesses told local Palestinian news outlets and state news agency Wafa.
Bodies were left on the ground with civil defence personnel and ambulances unable to reach them during the shelling, Wafa reported.
Israel increased its assault on the refugee camps of central Gaza on the 82nd day of the conflict.
The Palestinian death toll has risen to 21,110 people, with 55,243 injured since the war began on October 7, the Palestinian Health Ministry yesterday. On October 7, Hamas forces entered Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking 240 hostages.
The Health Ministry said 195 people were killed and 325 others were injured in attacks yesterday and on Tuesday.
Israeli forces carried out more strikes in Al Nuseirat camp near Deir Al Balah in central Gaza, Wafa said. Six people in Al Safatwi were taken to Al Shifa Hospital with gunshot wounds from Israeli snipers, the agency said.
The exact number of people killed was unknown as health and emergency personnel assessed the damage, but Wafa said dozens of bodies were taken to Al Aqsa Martyrs and Al Awda hospitals for burial preparations.
Three Israeli soldiers were killed in fighting in northern Gaza, the military said, bringing the death toll in the ground operation in the strip to 164.
Northern Gaza is devoid of medical service centres other than a PRCS-run health post in Jabalia, which has been bombed for weeks.
Jabalia has been without communications since Tuesday because of frequent telephone and internet cuts.
The medical post is staffed by volunteer doctors and nurses who have been treating minor and mild injuries.
They have also helped to deliver babies, despite the overcrowding in the complex.
“They receive 250 people a day on average and help in preparing bodies for burial – around 80 bodies a day,” PRCS spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh told The National.
The Jabalia medical point was crucial even when there were functioning hospitals in the north because the hospitals, despite being operational, were under siege and could not treat the injured.
“The work they are doing is heroic,” Ms Farsakh said.
In the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians in a raid on Nur Al Shams camp in Tulkarem yesterday, Wafa said.
The Health Ministry said the bodies of six people and one injured Palestinian were sent to Thabet Thabet Hospital.
PRCS spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh said that amid weeks of air strikes, the agency’s staff were doing ‘heroic’ work