Hamas group says Israel seeks to destroy health sector in Gaza as part of plan to forcibly expel Palestinians.
The Palestinian Health Ministry reported on Monday that the Israeli army had targeted the surgery floor of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, causing significant damage to its medical equipment.
Munir al-Bursh, the director of hospitals in Gaza, spoke from the hospital and mentioned that dead bodies were still accumulating within the facility, which has been surrounded by Israeli military vehicles for several days.
He further explained that the hospital was the only one partially functioning in Gaza City and the northern Gaza region, as all other hospitals in Gaza City had become non-operational, including Al-Shifa Hospital, which is currently under Israeli military control.
“650 injured people are in the [Indonesian] Hospital while its capacity is only 140 beds,” al-Bursh said.
He also noted that the Israeli military drones opened fire on Palestinians who tried to flee from the hospital.
Early on Monday, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens of others injured as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the Indonesian Hospital.
The Ministry accused the Israeli army of seeking to turn the hospital into “a mass grave.”
The Hamas group which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and confronts the Israeli military in Gaza, said the Israeli authorities seek to destroy the Palestinian health sector in Gaza as part of its plan to forcibly expel the Palestinian people from Gaza.
Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks in the Gaza Strip following a cross-border attack by Hamas on Oct. 7.
At least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 9,000 women and children, and more than 30,000 others injured ever since, according to the latest figures.
Thousands of buildings, including hospitals, mosques and churches, have also been damaged or destroyed in Israel’s relentless air and ground attacks on the besieged enclave.
The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is around 1,200, according to official figures.
According to a report, Israeli forces have attacked the only remaining operative hospital in the north of Gaza, killing at least 12 people.
At least 12 people, including doctors and patients, have been killed and injured as a result of the Israeli attacks that have been hitting the hospital since early morning.
Israeli tank shells also hit the nearby Kuwaiti school where hundreds of families have been sheltering.
Hospital spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra said they fear Israeli forces will repeat what they did at al-Shifa Hospital, which has been evacuated and taken over by occupation troops.
He said the situation is catastrophic and Israeli forces are only intensifying their attacks.
However, the Indonesian Hospital staff are insisting they will stay to treat the wounded. There are about 700 people, including medical staff and injured people, inside the hospital.
This came in the wake of claims by the Israeli military that it had uncovered a tunnel under Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital that stretched 55-meters beneath the war-torn complex where troops have been conducting a major operation.
#BREAKING| Israeli tanks continue shelling the Indonesian Hospital in the north of #Gaza.
Several casualties have been reported in the Israeli attack on the hospital, including the injury of the head of the orthopedic department of the Indonesian hospital, Dr. Adnan Al-Barsh,… pic.twitter.com/QuI2Y6I0dA
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) November 20, 2023
Following these so-called ‘discoveries’ at the hospital constructed by Israel some 40 years ago, the Israeli forces have accused doctors, medical staff and international organisations, including the UN and the World Health Organisation, of collaborating with Hamas in what has been described as a pretext to attack all hospitals in Gaza.
Israel has pounded Gaza relentlessly from the air, land and sea since 7 October when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel with some 1,200 people dying, and some 240 others kidnapped, according to Israeli authorities.
Since then Israel’s relentless campaign has killed at least 13,000 people, mostly civilians.
The operation in Al-Shifa has drawn widespread international condemnation, with the World Health Organisation describing the hospital as a “death zone” after sending in a team to visit the facility on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said Israel is seeking to “bring to an end the Palestinian people’s presence on what remains of its historical land”.
He made his comment during a summit of diplomats from Arab and Muslim-majority nations in Beijing.
There, leaders from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Indonesia, Palestine and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation are discussing ways to end the fighting in Gaza and raise pressure on Western countries to reject Israel’s characterisation of its military campaign in the strip as self-defence.
