Over 500 killed, hundreds injured as Gaza hospital bombed

Agencies | Gaza City                                        

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

In a horrific incident unparalleled in recent history, a hospital in Gaza sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians was bombarded yesterday evening, allegedly by Israel, killing over 500 civilians and injuring hundreds.

Israel has denied its role and said a failed militant rocket is to blame. The attack, which came on the eve of US President Joe Biden’s visit to demonstrate the “ironclad” support to Israel, occurred at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City where thousands of civilians are seeking medical treatment and shelter from the relentless air strikes.

The Gaza health ministry confirmed to news agencies that the death toll from the attack is over 500. Following Israel’s order to evacuate from North Gaza last week, over one million of the 2.3 million people in the Palestinian exclave of Gaza Strip have been displaced and are relying on hospitals and schools to seek shelter from the constant air strikes by Israel.

Along with the displacement, the Palestinians in Gaza are also facing an acute shortage of food and water and these necessities, along with electricity, have been cut off by Israel for over a week now since the Hamas attack.

Despite repeated calls from the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and the Red Cross, international aid for the displaced civilians has not been let into the Gaza Strip, forcing the bodies to warn about an impending catastrophe.

Even before the attack on the hospital in Gaza, the number of Palestinians who died in Israeli attacks in the past week had crossed 3,000, with one-third of it being children. The United Nations said yesterday that the Israeli evacuation order could be considered as a crime against humanity.

An Israeli air strike had hit a school run by the UN yesterday, killing six people, and a news report of Tuesday evening said people who fled to southern Gaza, following the Israeli directive to evacuate North Gaza, were bombed by Israeli forces and dozens have been killed.

The UN said yesterday evening that the forcible transfer of civilians in Gaza could be in breach of international law and that a legal temporary evacuation of civilians came with obligations on Israel, which it appears to have made no attempt to fulfil.

Hospitals in Gaza have reached a breaking point as desperate residents are taking shelter there in the hope of escaping from the Israeli shelling. AFP reported on Tuesday evening that the US has ordered 2,000 of its military personnel to prepare for deployment to the Middle East as a show of force, as Israel moves towards a ground attack.

While Hamas said on Tuesday that one of its top commanders had been killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for broad international support in the country’s fight against Hamas.