![Palestinian officials say Israeli airstrikes have hit hospitals and schools in Gaza](https://i-invdn-com.investing.com/trkd-images/LYNXMPEJA901O_L.jpg)
©Reuters. Palestinians take to the streets after an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 9, 2023. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
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By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA (Reuters) -Israeli airstrikes hit three hospitals and a school in Gaza on Friday, killing at least 22 people. A ground battle was underway at another hospital, Palestinian officials said, as Israeli forces attacked Hamas in the heart of the Gaza Strip. enclave.
Officials said rockets landed in the courtyard of Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa, in the early hours, damaging the Indonesian hospital and reportedly setting fire to the Nasser Rantissi children’s cancer hospital.
The hospitals are in northern Gaza, where Israel says the Hamas militants who attacked the country last month are concentrated, and are full of displaced people, patients and doctors. Israel says Hamas is using them as human shields, which the group denies.
Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken positions around the Nasser Rantissi, Children’s and Eye Hospitals and Al-Quds Hospital, medical staff said earlier, raising the alarm.
“Israel is now launching a war against hospitals in Gaza City,” Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of Shifa hospital, which was hit by rockets early on Friday, told Reuters.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said Israel had bombed Shifa hospital buildings five times. “One Palestinian was killed and several were injured in the early morning attack,” he said by telephone. Videos verified by Reuters showed scenes of panic and people covered in blood.
Selmeyah later said at least 20 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza City’s Al-Buraq school, where people whose homes had been destroyed were sheltering.
The Palestinian Red Cross said Israeli forces fired on Al-Quds hospital and violent clashes took place, killing one person and wounding 28, most of them children.
Israel did not immediately comment on the reports. It says it is not targeting civilians and trying to protect them, but that Hamas militants have hidden command centers and tunnels beneath Shifa and other hospitals.
“While the world sees neighborhoods with schools, hospitals, scout groups, children’s playgrounds and mosques, Hamas sees an opportunity to exploit them,” the Israeli army said. Hamas says such statements are not true.
With Palestinian officials reporting more than 10,000 dead, Israel faces growing calls for restraint in its months-long war against Hamas but says the militants, whose Oct. 7 attack left all Israelis fearing for their lives, are calling a ceasefire would exploit.
The Israeli military said it has hit more than 15,000 “terror targets” in the Gaza Strip and located 6,000 weapons since the war began.
Hamas’ armed wing said Friday it is still firing rockets and grenades into Israel and fighting off troops in Gaza.
Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas to warn people of Hamas rocket fire. Medics reported that two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds from a volley.
THOUSANDS OF FLIGHTS
Even before the conflict gripped them, Gaza’s hospitals were struggling to cope as medical supplies, clean water and fuel for power generators ran out and operations were performed without anesthesia.
After the explosion at Shifa hospital, many people fled. Ayman Al-Masri, wounded in the leg in the early days of the war, had sought shelter there with his mother and sister ten days ago.
“They hit Shifa today. Everyone started running into the street and we came here walking,” Masri told Reuters, saying his leg was still sore.
“We want a ceasefire, we want a solution, a political solution. I want the whole world to be behind us,” he said. “Dozens of our children are killed every day. These are massacres, this is all-out war.”
The Israeli government said people would have all day to move to southern Gaza and Al-Masri was among thousands who escaped. Hamas-affiliated media quoted health officials as saying that three people had been killed on a road used by people fleeing south.
Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said the Hamas headquarters were located in the basement of Shifa Hospital, meaning the hospital could lose its protected status and become a legitimate target.
Qidra said evacuating the hospitals was impossible.
“We are talking about 45 babies in incubators, 52 children in intensive care, hundreds of injured people and patients, and tens of thousands of displaced people,” he said.
Palestinian officials said 11,078 Gaza residents, including about 40% of them children, were killed in air and artillery strikes on Thursday, while many others were injured.
Israel says 1,400 people have been killed, mostly civilians, and about 240 people were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7, while 39 soldiers have been killed in the fighting since then.
AIR ATTACKS AT DAWN
The World Health Organization said colleagues had reported “intense violence” at Shifa Hospital and “significant bombing” at Rantissi Hospital. The Palestinian Health Ministry later said Rantissi hospital was on fire after a direct hit.
“Israel … targeted a number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip at dawn,” Palestinian Health Minister Mai Alkaila said.
A person who said he was a member of the staff at Nasser Children’s Hospital posted a call on social media saying he was surrounded.
“We are blocked by tanks in the hospital and exposed to heavy fire. We have no electricity, no oxygen for patients, no fresh water,” the report said. “The situation here is very difficult and dangerous.”
Indonesia said parts of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza were damaged by overnight explosions nearby.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 18 of 35 hospitals and 40 other health centers in Gaza were out of service, either due to damage from shelling or a lack of fuel.