Israeli missiles strike Gaza hospital, patients evacuated

Two Israeli missiles hit a building inside a main Gaza hospital on Sunday, destroying the emergency and reception department and damaging other structures, medics said, in a strike which Israel said was against Hamas fighters exploiting the facility.

Health officials at the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital evacuated the patients from the building after one person said he received a call from someone who identified himself with the Israeli security shortly before the attack took place.

No casualties were reported, according to the civil emergency service.

The outpatient and laboratory wards of the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist hospital are seen after being hit by an Israeli army strike late on Saturday, following a warning issued by the army to evacuate patients, in Gaza City, on Sunday. AP

The Israeli military said in a statement it had taken steps to reduce harm to civilians before it struck the compound, which was being used by Hamas fighters to plan attacks.

Images circulating on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed dozens of people leaving the premises, with some appearing to be dragging sick relatives on hospital beds.

The Palestinian foreign ministry and Hamas condemned the attack at Al-Ahli and said in a statement that Israel was destroying Gaza's healthcare system.

Israel says Hamas systematically exploits civilian structures, including hospitals, which the Palestinian group denies. Israeli forces have carried out numerous raids in medical facilities in the enclave.

In October 2023, a deadly blast at a parking lot in the compound of Al-Ahli hospital was blamed by Hamas on an Israeli air strike. Israel said a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group had caused the blast.

The Palestinian group denied it was responsible. An investigation by Human Rights Watch later concluded the 2023 explosion was most likely caused by a failed Palestinian rocket launch.

Mourners react next to the body of a Palestinian killed in Israeli strikes, during a funeral at Nasser hospital, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Sunday. Reuters

Separate strikes in the enclave on Sunday killed the head of a police station in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Hamas-run enclave, according to Hamas media.

At least eight more people, including a woman, were killed further north, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA. There was no immediate Israeli comment on those reports.

The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities. Much of Gaza is in ruins and most of its population has been displaced.

Reuters