Israel surrounds second hospital in Gaza, expanding attack target

Israeli forces seized Gaza’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, last week in search of a network of tunnels built by Hamas militants underneath. Among the hundreds of patients at Al Shifa were 28 premature babies who were flown to Egypt for emergency treatment on Monday.

Israel War Trucks Gaza Second Hospital Expands Target Attack Figure 1 — An injured boy is taken to Nasser Hospital after Israeli shelling of the Khan Younis refugee camp on November 20, 2023. Photo: AP

Live video broadcast by Egypt's Al Qahera television showed medical staff carefully lifting newborn babies from inside the ambulance and placing them in portable incubators, which were then pushed across the parking lot towards other ambulances.

On Sunday, the babies were transferred to a hospital in Rafah where their condition could be stabilised, before being flown to Egypt. WHO Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 12 had been flown to Cairo.

A WHO spokesman said all the evacuated babies were “struggling with serious infections”. Eight babies have died since doctors at Al Shifa issued an international alert this month about 39 premature babies trapped at Al Shifa hospital.

12 more people died at Indonesian hospital

Once they had taken control of Al Shifa, Israeli forces continued to attack and surround another major hospital in Gaza, the Indonesian hospital funded by Jakarta. Gaza health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured when Israel used tanks to surround and attack the hospital.

Gaza health officials say 700 patients and staff are trapped in the Israeli-blocked hospital. Palestinian news agency WAFA says the facility was hit by shelling, but Israeli ground troops are not yet inside the hospital.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the military returned fire on militants in the hospital and took “numerous measures to minimize damage” to non-combatants.

“Overnight, terrorists opened fire from inside the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza toward IDF troops operating outside the hospital. In response, IDF troops targeted specific sources of enemy fire. No shells were fired toward the hospital,” the IDF said.

Like all other medical facilities in the northern half of Gaza, the Indonesian hospital has largely ceased operations but is still accepting patients, staff and displaced residents.

Israel has ordered an evacuation from northern Gaza but thousands of civilians remain. Food, fuel, medicine and water have run out across the area under Israel's six-week siege.

Israel attacks many other targets

In the south, where hundreds of thousands of Gazans fleeing the north of the enclave are taking refuge, at least 14 Palestinians were killed in two Israeli attacks on homes in Rafah, according to Gaza's health authority.

At least five people were killed and 10 injured when an Israeli airstrike hit an apartment in Khan Younis, at the southern end of the strip, according to medical sources at Gaza's Nasser Hospital.

Israel War Trucks Second Hospital in Gaza Expanded Target Attack Figure 2 — Israeli infantry and tanks are expanding their attack targets in Gaza. Photo: Reuters

Witnesses also reported fierce fighting between Hamas gunmen and Israeli forces trying to enter the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, home to 100,000 people and a key Hamas stronghold, according to Israel.

Palestinian doctors say Israel's continued bombardment of Jabalia, an urban sprawl of Gaza City that grew out of a camp for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, has killed dozens of civilians.

The Israeli military released a statement with video of air strikes and troops going door-to-door in Gaza, saying they had killed three Hamas company commanders and a squad of Palestinian militants.

Meanwhile, Hamas said on its Telegram account that it had launched a barrage of rockets towards Tel Aviv. Witnesses also said rockets were fired into central Israel.

Hamas-run agencies in Gaza say at least 13,300 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 5,600 children and 3,550 women, since the war began on October 7. The United Nations says two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been left homeless.

“We are witnessing an unprecedented killing of civilians and unprecedented in any conflict since I have been secretary-general,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who took office on January 1, 2017, told reporters.

Huy Hoang (according to Reuters, CNN, AP)

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