Israel bombs vicinity of cancer hospital in Gaza

Israeli warplanes bombed the area around the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in Gaza on Monday, causing severe damage to the building, Anadolu has reported. The hospital is a specialist cancer facility.

“Panic has hit cancer patients and medical staff as a result of the heavy Israeli bombardment of the hospital and the severe damage caused,” wrote the hospital’s Director-General, Dr Subhi Skaik, on Facebook. “The occupation has not only increased the suffering and pain of cancer patients and deprived them of medicines and travel for treatment abroad, but has also endangered them by targeting the hospital surroundings.”

The Turkish government-funded the construction of the hospital from 2011-2017. It is the largest hospital in Palestine with an area of 34,800 square metres over six floors and 180 beds.

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Earlier on Sunday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Gaza announced that Israel had also bombed the vicinity of Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza, causing damage to the building, injuring patients and displaced persons who took refuge there.

On 17 October, Israel bombed the Baptist Hospital in Gaza killing 500 people, most of them children and families who sought refuge after losing their homes in Israeli air strikes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has recently announced that 12 hospitals and 32 primary care centres are now out of service as a result of direct Israeli targeting, or their inability to continue operating due to running out of fuel.

The death toll from the Israeli aggression on Gaza has reached 8,425, including 3,457 children and 2,136 women, in addition to more than 21,000 people wounded, the ministry has confirmed.

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