Israel has claimed responsibility for an attack on an ambulance outside Gaza City\u2019s Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the enclave, which witnesses say killed and wounded dozens of people. <\/p>\n
At least 15 people were killed and 50 others wounded,\u00a0the Hamas-run health authorities said Friday. Footage from the scene showed at least a dozen bloodied casualties strewn across the ground near an ambulance. There appears to be some shrapnel damage to at least one of the cars on the scene. <\/p>\n
Israel said it had targeted the ambulance because it was being used by\u00a0Hamas, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). \u201cAn IDF aircraft struck an ambulance that was identified by forces as being used by a\u00a0Hamas\u00a0terrorist cell in close proximity to their position in the battle zone,\u201d it wrote. <\/p>\n
\u201cA number of\u00a0Hamas\u00a0terrorist operatives were killed in the strike\u2026 We have information which demonstrates that\u00a0Hamas\u2019 method of operation is to transfer terror operatives and weapons in ambulances,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, who was at Al-Shifa Hospital,\u00a0said\u00a0that Israel was responsible for the attack. <\/p>\n
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said one of its ambulances was in the convoy but that none of its team members were injured in the strike. <\/p>\n
The ambulance was damaged when a shell fell near it, the PCRS said. \u201cUpon arrival at Al-Shifa hospital\u2019s gate, the gate was targeted again,\u201d PRCS said, adding that a separate Ministry of Health ambulance was then directly hit and dozens of civilians in the area were killed and injured. <\/p>\n
Dr. Ashraf Al-Qidra said that authorities had organized the medical convoy from the hospital and had informed the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) about the move. <\/p>\n
He said the convoy was traveling to the Rafah Crossing \u2013 the border in the south of the besieged enclave has been seen as the last hope\u00a0for Gazans to escape\u00a0as Israel\u2019s bombs rain down on the strip. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the ambulances moved towards the south, the occupation [Israel] targeted the ambulances in multiple locations,\u00a0including on the gate of Al-Shifa medical compound,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Israeli occupation targeted intentionally those ambulances.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cEven if we were not present, this is still medical convoy, and any violence towards medical personnel is unacceptable,\u201d the ICRC said\u00a0\u201cNo doctors, nurses, or any medical professionals should ever die while working to save lives.\u201d <\/p>\n
Al-Shifa Hospital has increasingly found itself part of the frontline as Israel last week claimed that the facility is the site of a significant Hamas command and control center. <\/p>\n
Hamas\u00a0also rejected the claim, calling on \u201cthe United Nations, Arab and Islamic countries to immediately intervene to stop the madness of bombing and destroying the medical system.\u201d <\/p>\n
It is located in one of the most densely populated areas on earth, the 140-square-mile Gaza Strip, which is being pounded and encircled by the Israeli military. <\/p>\n
Calls for a ceasefire by Hamas, aid organizations, and much of the global community have been rejected categorically by Israel\u2019s government, which has vowed to wipe out Hamas after its terror attack last month, which massacred more than 1,400 Israelis, most of them civilians. <\/p>\n
In Gaza, the civilian casualties have continued to rise as Israel strikes large residential neighborhoods, schools, and some areas immediately around hospitals, in what it says are military target strikes. More than 9,100 people have\u00a0been killed in Israeli attacks is the Strip\u00a0since October 7, according to the latest figures from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah, which drew from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave. <\/p>\n
The bombardment has overwhelmed Gaza\u2019s medical institutions, now struggling to run amid dwindling supplies and fuel. <\/p>\n
Doctors at Al-Shifa are seeing children with the majority of their body and faces burned, missing limbs and other \u201ccatastrophic injuries,\u201d\u00a0said Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care and humanitarian doctor with the aid group Doctors Without Borders, also known as M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res. <\/p>\n\n
Israel has claimed responsibility for an attack on an ambulance outside Gaza City\u2019s Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the enclave, which witnesses say killed and wounded dozens of people. At least 15 people were killed and 50 others wounded,\u00a0the Hamas-run health authorities said Friday. Footage from the scene showed at least a dozen <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11152,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}