Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a mosque, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Image for representation only.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Israeli forces stormed the grounds of another hospital in the Gaza Strip after bombing the area around it for nine consecutive days, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said Tuesday.
The besieged facility, the Amal Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, is run by the Red Crescent and located inside a compound that is home to the local headquarters of the aid group and to one of its ambulance centers.
Thousands of displaced people were sheltering at the compound when Israeli forces moved tanks into the hospital's front yard, fired live ammunition and smoke grenades and ordered people to leave the premises, the Red Crescent said. Earlier in the day, the organization said at least one displaced person had been killed and nine others injured by heavy shelling and gunfire around the compound.
In a statement, the Israeli military denied that it had operated "inside" the Amal Hospital on Tuesday or called for its evacuation but did not answer specific questions about actions in and around the broader hospital compound.
The Israeli military has accused Hamas of operating command and control centers inside hospitals in Gaza and has raided health care facilities up and down the strip. Those include Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Awda Hospital in Jabalia, Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia and Khair Hospital near Khan Younis. Hamas, Palestinian officials and hospital workers have denied Israel's claims.
The Israeli military made similar accusations last week about Hamas militants operating from within the Amal Hospital. The Red Crescent firmly denied the allegation, saying in a statement that Israel's "siege and its consequences are a blatant violation of international agreements" to protect medical and humanitarian missions.
Those consequences have been particularly dire for some 7,000 displaced people who have been forced to take shelter around the hospital, the aid group said.
On Monday alone, the Red Crescent reported that the hospital's surgical ward had ceased operations because of a lack of oxygen supplies, that two displaced people were killed while trying to retrieve the body of a third and that emergency teams were having trouble reaching the wounded because of gunfire.
Late Tuesday, the aid group announced that a baby girl at the hospital had died because of the lack of oxygen supplies. "Occupation vehicles have retreated from the vicinity of Al-Amal Hospital," the Red Crescent added in a separate statement, "while shelling and gunfire continue in the hospital's surroundings."