Illustrative image. (The Israeli Defense Forces)
Israeli strikes hit al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on April 13, destroying the emergency and reception department and damaging other structures.
Patients were evacuated from the targeted building after one of the workers there received a call from someone who identified himself with the Israeli security shortly before the strikes took place. Despite the heavy damage, no casualties were reported as a result of the strikes.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) claimed in a statement later that the strikes targeted a command center of the Hamas Movement within the hospital.
“The IDF and Shin Bet attacked a command and control complex in the northern Gaza Strip inside the Al-Ahli hospital that was used by the Hamas terrorist organization,” the military said.
“The complex was used by the terrorists to plan and execute terrorist attacks against IDF forces and citizens of the State of Israel,” it added
The military also said that prior to the strikes, it took steps to reduce civilian casualties, including providing early warning in the area, using precision weapons, and aerial surveillance.
“The Hamas terrorist organization systematically violates international law, while brutally exploiting civilian buildings and the civilian population as human shields for terrorist operations,” the military added, calling on the terror group to cease using medical facilities as cover.
Footage of the Israeli strikes on the hospital were aired live by Al Jazeera and recorded by Palestinian activists in northern Gaza.
The Palestinian foreign ministry and Hamas both condemned the attack at Al-Ahli, and said in a statement that Israel was destroying the healthcare system in Gaza.
The hospital, which is located in Gaza City and run by the Anglican Church, was a major medical facility in Gaza City, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
“Hundreds of patients and injured people had to be evacuated in the middle of the night, and many of them are now out in the streets without medical care, which puts their lives at risk,” Khalil Al-Deqran, the ministry’s spokesperson, told Reuters.
This was not the first hospital to be targeted since Israel resumed its operations in Gaza on March 18, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that was brokered by the United States, Egypt and Qatar last January. On March 23, the IDF killed Ismail Barhoum, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, in a strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. The strike also claimed the life of a 16-year-old boy who had recently undergone surgery.
More than 1,500 Palestinains, including women and children, have been killed since the IDF resumed operations in Gaza. The latest deaths brought the total toll in the Strip from the Israeli war which broke out after the October 7 Hamas-led surprise attack of 2023 close to 51,000.
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