Israel on Sunday bombed the last fully functional hospital in Gaza, rendering it functionless and killing at least 21 people, including children.
The predawn strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was the latest of several attacks on northern Gaza's last major hospital providing critical health care.
Hospital director Dr. Fadel Naim said the emergency room, pharmacy and surrounding buildings were severely damaged, affecting over 100 patients and dozens of staff.
One patient, a girl, died during the evacuation following an Israeli warning that gave just 20 minutes for the entire facility to be evacuated.
"How can a hospital be evacuated in less than 20 minutes?” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock asked, refusing to condemn the attack.
Al-Ahli Hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which condemned the attack, saying in a statement it happened on "Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week, the most sacred week of the Christian year."
Condemning the attack, Palestinian Christian group Higher Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine said in a statement, “The attack, carried out on Palm Sunday, one of the holiest days in the Christian calendar, constitutes a grave violation of religious sanctity and fundamental principles of international humanitarian law.”
The statement added that Israel’s assault on the hospital was not an isolated event, but part of a broader, systematic strategy to dismantle Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure and other vital services critical to civilian life.
In a statement condemning the attack, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry called it “flagrant violation of international law and international humanitarian law.”
“The continued systematic targeting of civilians and civilian objects in Gaza, the destruction of vital facilities that provide essential services to Gazans, and Israel’s use of hunger and blockade as weapons to force Palestinians towards forced displacement,” the ministry's official spokesperson Sufian al-Qudah said.
An Associated Press video showed the Al-Ahli Hospital's caved-in roof surrounded by rubble. The health ministry's director general, Dr. Munir al-Boursh, said patients had been carried outside in beds and slept in the streets.
"Nothing was left safe inside the hospital, or all over Gaza," said Mohammad Abu Nasser, an injured man who sat on his bed outdoors and looked at the destruction.
The health ministry said the hospital was temporarily out of service and patients were transferred to other hospitals in Gaza City. The aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians called it the fifth attack on Al-Ahli since the war began.
Hospitals have special protection under international law. Israel has besieged and raided them, some several times, and struck multiple ones while accusing Hamas of using them as cover for its fighters, without providing any evidence.
Last month Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest in southern Gaza, killing two people and causing a large fire, the health ministry said. The facility had been overwhelmed when Israel ended a two-month ceasefire last month with a surprise wave of airstrikes.
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, and according to media reports, Palestinain Christians from the occupied West Bank who were on their way to take part in Palm Sunday services were denied entry into Jerusalem by the Israeli army.
Calling on churches worldwide to condemn the Israeli forces' move, Hamas condemned Israel and its “ongoing attacks on freedom of worship and access to holy sites.”
Charity workers killed
Hours later Sunday, a strike on a car in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza killed at least seven people including six brothers, according to staff at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. The youngest brother was 10.
Their father, Ibrahim Abu Mahadi, said his sons worked for a charity that distributes food to Palestinians. "For what sin were they killed?" he said.
AP reporters saw the mangled, bloodied car as relatives wept over the bodies. Israel's military asserted that it killed the deputy head of a Hamas sniper cell.
An airstrike Sunday afternoon hit a house in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least seven people including two women, according to the Indonesian hospital.
A pregnant woman was rescued from the rubble. Alaa Manoun later wept after learning her youngest daughter had died, along with her husband and her mother. Two other daughters, ages 4 and 7, were injured.
Manoun had a broken ankle but otherwise seemed OK, according to a doctor. No scan was available, since the only machine in northern Gaza was at Al-Ahli Hospital, now damaged.
"We don't know whose body is this and whose body is that," said a neighbor, Abdallah Dardouna. "There is no resistance, there is no Qassam, no Hamas, there is no one here. It's only civilians here."
Another strike in Deir al-Balah hit a municipal building and killed at least three people, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. In Khan Younis, a strike killed at least three people, according to staff at Nasser Hospital.
At least 50,000 Palestinians, majority of them children and women, have been killed by Israel in its genocidal war against Gaza. Israel has also continuously targeted journalists, healthcare workers and aid workers in blatant violation of international laws.