to report «iusnews»; Several people have been killed and dozens of others wounded in an Israeli attack on an ambulance convoy near the Al-Shifa hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The health ministry said “several citizens were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike at the entrance to Al-Shifa hospital” in Gaza City on Friday, Al-Jazeera reported.
Israeli fighter jets targeted three hospitals in Gaza on Friday within the space of a few hours, the health ministry said.
Bombs were dropped in the courtyards of the Indonesian hospital, the Al-Quds hospital, and Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza's biggest medical facility.
A convoy of ambulances was transporting critically wounded patients from Al-Shifa hospital to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt when it was targeted in an Israeli attack, said Ashraf Al-Qudra, a spokesman for the health ministry in Gaza.
“We informed the Red Cross and the Red Crescent, we informed the whole world, that those victims were lined up in those ambulances,” he said.
“This was a medical convoy,” he added.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of its ambulances was targeted in the attack near Al-Shifa. “The staff is safe,” it said.
Palestinian Red Crescent Spokesman Mohamed Abu Musbah said the entrance of Al-Shifa Hospital, where one of their ambulances was struck in an Israeli attack a short while ago, is “extremely crowded”.
The front yard near the entrance of the hospital is “filled with civilians” and until now, there is no confirmation on the number of potential casualties, Abu Musbah told Al-Jazeera.
The ambulance driver and a PRCS staff member who was escorting the wounded have both “survived”, but one of them suffered from shrapnel wounds in his leg, Abu Musbah said.
With them inside the vehicle was a female patient who is now in “serious condition and has been taken back inside Al-Shifa Hospital”, he added.
Meanwhile, Hamas’s Political Bureau Chief Ismail Haniyeh issued a statement decrying the latest Israeli attacks on ambulances and medical facilities in the Gaza Strip.
“These massacres are a reflection of the predicament the occupation and its ground forces find themselves in as they are combated by our resistance fighters, who are defending our land and avenging thousands of martyrs,” Haniyeh said.
He said the “resistance will continue to defend our people with all its might”.
Haniyeh also called on neighbouring Egypt to fully open the Rafah border crossing and called on people in the region and the world to “continue expressing their anger” in response to Israel and its allies.
Haniyeh also urged the international community to uphold its “humanitarian, moral and political responsibilities” and implement UN resolutions that call for an end to the “genocide being committed against our people in Gaza”.
At least 16 hospitals across Gaza are no longer functioning due to damage from strikes and a lack of fuel, the health ministry said.
The largest hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa is facing severe overcrowding, with a bed occupancy rate of 164 percent according to the World Health Organization (WHO), amid Israel’s continuing bombardment and blockade of the territory.
The WHO warned Wednesday that the fuel shortage “immediately risks the lives” of the wounded and other patients.
The Israeli assault on Gaza came after Hamas fighters killed at least 1,400 people in an attack on Southern Israel, according to Israeli officials.
More than 9,200 people have been killed and 23,500 others wounded in Gaza since Israel launched a bombardment of the territory on October 7, according to Palestinian authorities.
