According to Hamas, an Israeli strike on the main hospital in the area on Friday killed 13 Palestinians in Gaza City.
Israeli strike on Gaza’s biggest hospital: A government statement issued in central Gaza City claimed that “thirteen martyrs and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on Al-Shifa compound today,” while AFP was unable to independently confirm the number at that time.
Israeli tanks opened fire on Al-Shifa hospital, according to director of the hospital Mohammad Abu Salmiya. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Israel claimed to have damaged tunnels essential to Hamas’s ability to fight and to have killed scores of fighters during fierce combat on Thursday near the hospital.
The Israeli army has maintained that Hamas uses hospitals, especially Al-Shifa, as both a base of operations for its commanders’ hideouts and a means of coordinating attacks against the army.
Doctors and Hamas officials refute the allegations.
Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and responded by attacking from air and launching ground operation that, according to the Gaza Strip’s health ministry, has killed over 10,800 people, the majority of them were civilians and many of them were children.
Abu Mohammad, 32, and fifteen family members sought sanctuary in the hospital following the assault of his neighbourhood in the northeastern area of Gaza City.
“There’s nowhere safe to go anymore. Al-Shifa was struck by the troops. “I’m not sure what to do,” he murmured.
“A shooting has occurred at the hospital.” We fear leaving the house.
Witnesses claimed that throughout the previous few weeks, intense fighting had forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to escape to south of the area, and that tanks had surrounded some other hospitals in Gaza City.
However, At daybreak, AFPTV images showed smoke and a fireball towering over the city. Further, Early on Friday, reports indicated sounds of what appeared to be gunfire and explosions.
