Patients flee hospital raid as Israel hunts for hostage bodies
AT least one patient has died and several have been injured as the Israel Defence Forces stormed southern Gaza’s main hospital.
The Nasser Hospital was also shelled as part of an operation to retrieve the bodies of Israeli hostages it said were being held by Hamas.
Israel has also long accused the terrorist organisation responsible for the October 7 massacre of using hospitals as a secret base for its operations. IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said the ‘precise and limited’ mission was based on credible intelligence that hostages had been held at the facility in the city of Khan Younis.
But local media subsequently reported that families were told no trace of their missing relatives were found by soldiers.
It came a day after the army told patients and staff to evacuate the complex. The Hamas-run health ministry claimed a maternity ward was among the areas attacked by the IDF.
Hospital director Nahed AbuTeima said conditions are ‘catastrophic and very dangerous’.
He told the BBC: ‘Since the midnight hours, violent shelling and severe explosions have continued in the vicinity of the complex.
‘Many of these patients have severe spinal injuries, severe limb injuries, limb amputations, brain injuries that led to cerebral palsy and hemiplegia, and these patients cannot move or cannot walk.’ The southern city has been the main target of Israel’s offensive against Hamas in recent weeks.
Video of the aftermath of the strike on the hospital showed doctors scrambling to wheel patients on stretchers through a corridor filled with smoke or dust.
A doctor used a phone flashlight to illuminate a darkened room where a wounded man screamed as gunfire echoed outside.
Dr Khaled Alserr, one of the remaining surgeons at Nasser Hospital, said: ‘The situation is escalating every hour and every minute.’
The Israeli military said it had opened a secure corridor for displaced people to leave the hospital but would allow doctors and patients to remain in it.
In a statement, the Medecins Sans Frontieres charity said: ‘Our staff reported a chaotic situation, with an undetermined number of people killed and injured.
‘We call on them to immediately stop this attack, as it endangers medical staff and patients who are still stuck inside the facility.’
The Gaza health ministry claimed last week that Israeli snipers on surrounding buildings were preventing
‘Escalating every minute’
people from entering or leaving the hospital. Before yesterday’s strike, it said ten people had been killed inside the complex over the past week, including three allegedly shot and killed on Tuesday.
The conflict began when Hamas terrorists burst across Israel’s border on October 7 and rampaged through communities, murdering some 1,200, including women and children, and taking another 250 hostage. Israel responded by launching a deadly military campaign.
According to the Hamas-run health ministry, more than 28,000 Palestinians have been killed, four-fifths of the population have fled their homes and a quarter are starving. Large areas of northern Gaza, first target of the offensive, are destroyed.
Talks over a cease-fire appear to have stalled, and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the offensive until Hamas is destroyed and the hostages are returned.