Gaza’s second-largest hospital said Israel ordered it on Sunday to clear its building ahead of an airstrike on it, even though the facility has repeatedly warned that evacuation would be impossible.
Following Israel’s warning, videos were uploaded to social media showing the apparent aftermath of the airstrikes on Tal Al Hawa, where Al Quds Hospital is located, with clouds of smoke visible just a few blocks away.
Maj. Nir Dinar, a representative of the Israel Defense Forces, told CNN that the hospital received repeated evacuation warnings.
“They received much more than two [warnings] for the last three weeks,” Dinar said.
Hospital officials said they received two calls on Sunday to empty their building, as the IDF had planned a series of airstrikes on it and the area to kill Hamas terrorists, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. , which manages the facility.
The cowardly terrorist group is known to hide in buildings full of innocent civilians, such as hospitals and schools, so that Israel does not attack them.
“Two phone calls were received, with a clear and direct threat that the hospital had to be evacuated immediately, otherwise the PRCS is fully responsible for the lives of everyone inside the hospital,” the organization said.
Clouds of dust from an airstrike in Gaza could be seen encroaching on Al Quds Hospital on Sunday after a warning from the Israeli army. @jacksonhinklle/X A building in the area was destroyed in Sunday’s airstrike. Twitter Footage shows the aftermath of Israeli airstrikes in the Tal al Hawa neighborhood in Gaza, where Al Quds Hospital is located.@arooj_farhat / X
Raed Al Nems, PRCS media chief, said similar warnings were received before several airstrikes in Tal Al Hawa, but these were the first to threaten a direct hit on the hospital.
“In the last few days, they used to say that we needed to evacuate because they would target the area,” he told The New York Times. “This time it was clear that they wanted to attack us.”
The hospital has repeatedly warned that it is not feasible to evacuate its building as it is treating hundreds of patients and serves as shelter for some 12,000 displaced civilians.
The hospital has said it also has many patients in intensive care and children in incubators who cannot be moved as easily.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has called on Israel and humanitarian groups operating in Gaza to support the hospital and has called on the IDF to prevent further airstrikes in the area.
Civilians try to take shelter during Israeli airstrikes.@arooj_farhat/X Smoke and bright flashes envelop Gaza as Israeli planes drop flares on Sunday.Twitter
“We once again call on the international community as a whole, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the United Nations system and international agencies to act immediately and save Al Quds Hospital, as well as all hospitals in Gaza, from being attacked, and to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe from developing,” the hospital said in a statement.
In addition to fears of airstrikes, the PRCS has said the situation at the hospital is becoming more desperate as it runs out of fuel and medical supplies, and some ambulances are not working due to a lack of gasoline, the Times reports.
The situation has become so dire that the United Nations World Food Program revealed on Sunday that aid supplies were looted in Gaza during “growing hunger and desperation.”
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Source: vtt.edu.vn