Gaza’s Health Ministry said today that two patients had died following an Israeli attack on a hospital in the northern Palestinian enclave, with the army saying it was not “deliberately targeted”.
“THE Israeli tanks completely surrounded the hospital, cut off the electricity and opened fire with grenades on the second and third floors,” the director of the Indonesian hospital told Sultan Beit Lahia Marwan.
“This creates serious risks for medical staff and patients,” he emphasized.
In a statement, the Hamas government’s Ministry of Health said that two patients died “due to the hospital siege, power cuts and lack of medical supplies.” It did not specify what the patients who died suffered or the exact cause of death.
The ministry had already stated that the strikes were directed at the upper floors of the hospital and that “more than 40 patients” were injured, as well as medical personnel.
The army, contacted by AFP, said in a statement that it operated “close to the Indonesian hospital”.
“Troops operating in the area were trained in operational activities and informed about the importance of limiting damage to civil and medical infrastructure,” he added.
The military “stresses that the hospital continues to operate undisturbed and at full capacity”, stating that it was not “deliberately targeted by fire”.
The Israeli military launched a new offensive on October 6 against the town of Jabalia, which is next to the Indonesian hospital, saying it was targeting the regrouping of Hamas fighters.
He accuses the militants of “systematically trying to blend in with the civilian population.”
OR Gaza Civil Defense Service had announced last night the death of 33 people in an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp.
The area, where hostilities are intense and new bombings are taking place, has twice been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting since the start of the war, following an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas on Israel on October 7 2023.
Source: AMPE