The Israeli strike killed a security guard at a field hospital in southern Gaza on Tuesday, causing 10 patients to be injured, according to the medical facility director.
Two days after the Israeli strike struck one of the compounds at the Arab Hospital in Gaza city, one of the Enclave's last functioning medical centres, a fatal attack occurred on the premises of Khan Eunice's Kuwait Specialty Hospital. The strike highlighted the instability of Gaza's healthcare sector, which was broken by the war.
Israeli forces said the strike at Arab Arab hospitals targeted Hamas Command Centre without providing evidence – said they are considering reporting on attacks on Kuwait-specialized field hospitals.
Field Hospital Director Dr. Suhive Al Hams said security guards were killed to protect the entrance to the facility. The four injured were seriously injured, he added, and the attack hit the edge of the hospital grounds.
“It was a strong strike,” said 37-year-old Dr. Al Hams in a telephone interview. “It all fell.”
Others at the hospital said the strike urged patients to flee the hospital.
“It was a horrifying moment,” said Mohammed Abugali, field coordinator for Heal Palestinian, an American non-governmental organization that funds field hospitals.
Israeli military attacks have caused great damage to the enclave's hospitals and health care systems. The World Health Organization reported last month that 33 of Gaza's 36 hospitals had been damaged, with only 21 remaining partially functional. On Saturday, Gaza hospitals warned that Israel faced a looming shortage of medication as it blocked delivery of aid for six weeks.
Israeli officials say medical centres are being targeted as Hamas fighter jets are embedded inside and beneath the facility, and that is the only way to eradicate armed groups. Hamas and healthcare workers denied the charges.
Evidence investigated by the New York Times suggests Hamas used Alsifa Hospital in Gaza, where Israeli forces were attacked, hiding weapons inside. Israeli forces have not presented equally extensive evidence for most of the other health care centers it attacked.
Dr Al Hams said the location of the Kuwait-specialized field hospital is known to Israeli authorities as it was shared through intermediaries prior to the attack. He added that staff have been vetted and that Hamas government agencies are not hosted in medical facilities.
“We're not doing anything except medicine,” he said.
According to Dr. Al Hams, a field hospital specializing in Kuwait treated a minimum of 3,500 patients every day.
“The hospitals are offering people a solution in light of the collapse of Gaza's Heath division,” he said.
Since the collapse of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas last month, Israeli forces have launched a massive bombing campaign and seized Gaza territory. Israeli officials said the attack was a bid to force Hamas to release more hostages in the enclave.
Of the more than 51,000 people who have killed more than 51,000 since the start of the war, more than 1,600 have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire collapsed, according to figures from the Gaza Ministry of Health. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in terms of casualties.
Doctors at Gaza hospitals say many of the people injured and killed in recent weeks are children. On April 3, more than dozens of injured children were seen in the emergency room at an Arab Arab hospital after an Israeli attack that circulated at a nearby school. Israeli forces accused Hamas of embedding them in schools, but later said those strikes were targeting famous extremists at Hamas headquarters.
Patrick Kingsley I contributed to this article.
