Israel intensifies strikes across Gaza, hits hospital in north

A wave of Israeli strikes across Gaza on Sunday hit a hospital and other sites killing at least 21 people including children as Israel vowed to expand its security presence in the small coastal stripThe predawn strike on AlAhli Hospital in Gaza City was the latest of several attacks on northern Gazas last major hospital providing critical health careHospital director Dr Fadel Naim said the emergency room pharmacy and surrounding buildings were severely damaged affecting over 100 patients and dozens of staffOne patient a girl died during the evacuation following an Israeli warning because staff were unable to provide urgent care Gazas Health Ministry said Israel said it struck a Hamas command and control center at the hospital without providing evidence Hamas denied the allegationsAlAhli 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 yearPalm Sunday commemorates Jesus entry into Jerusalem and worshipers in Gaza City marked it in a church whose gilded trim and intact walls were a contrast to the widespread debris elsewhereAssociated Press video showed the hospitals cavedin roof surrounded by rubble The health ministrys director general Dr Munir alBoursh said patients had been carried outside in beds and slept in the streetsNothing 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 destructionThe 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 AlAhli since the war beganHospitals 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 fightersLast 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 twomonth ceasefire last month with a surprise wave of airstrikesCharity workers killedHours later Sunday a strike on a car in Deir alBalah in central Gaza killed at least seven people including six brothers according to staff at AlAqsa Martyrs Hospital which received the bodies The youngest brother was 10Their father Ibrahim Abu Mahadi said his sons worked for a charity that distributes food to Palestinians For what sin were they killed he saidAP reporters saw the mangled bloodied car as relatives wept over the bodies Israels military asserted that it killed the deputy head of a Hamas sniper cellAn 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 hospitalA 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 injuredManoun 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 AlAhli Hospital now damagedWe dont 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 Its only civilians hereAnother strike in Deir alBalah hit a municipal building and killed at least three people according to AlAqsa Martyrs Hospital In Khan Younis a strike killed at least three people according to staff at Nasser HospitalIsraels military said in a statement it had struck over 90 militant targets over the past 48 hours including command and control centers tunnels and weapons The military also said it had intercepted a projectile fired from GazaThe war started when Hamasled militants killed 1200 people mostly civilians during an Oct 7 2023 attack on southern Israel and took 250 people captive Many were eventually freed in ceasefire dealsIsraeli authorities have vowed to pressure Hamas to release the remaining 59 hostages 24 believed to be alive and accept new ceasefire terms It cut off all supplies to Gaza over a month agoMore than 50000 Palestinians have been killed in Israels retaliatory offensive according to Gazas Health Ministry which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count but says more than half of the dead have been women and childrenMissile reported from YemenIsraels military said a missile was launched from Yemen on Sunday afternoon and the details were under review Sirens sounded in several parts of Israel and the occupied West Bank There were no reports of casualties or damageThe Iranianbacked Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to target Israel in what they have called solidarity with the Palestinians in GazaThis 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