Gaza (Quds News Network)- At least one medic was killed and nine others were wounded on Tuesday in an Israeli airstrike targeting the northern gate of the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
The medic was identified as Mane’ Hannoun and other casualties were all patients and medics, hospital spokesman Saber Mohammed said.
At least 17 Palestinians have been killed and 69 wounded in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry on Tuesday.
“A number of victims remain under the rubble and on the roads, unable to be reached by ambulances and Civil Defence crews,” the ministry said.
The latest figures bring the toll since Israel broke the ceasefire on March 18 to 1,630 killed and 4,302 wounded, the ministry said. Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 51,000 Palestinians and injured 116,343, it added.
On Sunday, Israel struck the last functioning hospital in Gaza, further worsening an already critical lack of medical facilities in the enclave. Gaza’s Civil Defence said Israel’s strike on al-Ahli al-Arabi Baptist Hospital led to “the destruction of the surgery building and the oxygen generation station for the intensive care units”.
They added that the attack came “minutes after the [Israeli] army’s warning to evacuate this building of patients, the injured and their companions”.
Missiles hit the hospital’s main reception building, damaging or destroying essential departments such as the emergency care ward, laboratory and pharmacy. Eyewitnesses said the Israeli military threatened to bomb the hospital just minutes before the strikes, giving those in its compounds only 18 minutes to evacuate.
Due to the rushed expulsion, critically ill patients were evacuated out in the cold without proper care. At least three patients – including a child being treated for head injuries – died as a result.
“Unprecedented” Shortages
The Palestinian Health Ministry warned earlier this week that hospitals and medical centres in Gaza were facing “dangerous and unprecedented” shortages of essential medicines as a result of Israel’s blockade.
The ministry said that 37 percent of essential drugs and 59 percent of medical supplies were completely out of stock, along with 54 percent of medications used to treat cancer and blood diseases.
Emergency, surgical and intensive care units had been operating with severely depleted life-saving treatments, while around 80,000 diabetic patients and 110,000 with high blood pressure were no longer receiving care.
The ministry said Israel’s siege that cut off Gaza from food, fuel and medicine, among other vital supplies, is worsening the crisis and creating “catastrophic” challenges for treating patients and the wounded.
Al-Ahli Hospital is one of 36 hospitals that have been bombed, burned or destroyed by the Israeli military since the start of the war, according to the Government Media Office in Gaza on Sunday.
The World Health Organization reported last month that 33 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals had been damaged during the assault, and only 21 remained partly functional. The WHO also warned on Saturday that hospitals in Gaza face a looming medicine shortage because Israel has blocked aid deliveries for six weeks.
