Dozens injured in Israel bombing of Deir Al-Balah hospital area

Dozens of Palestinians were injured yesterday when the Israeli army bombed the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Anadolu news agency reported.

A state of panic prevailed among Palestinians at the site, while bodies were seen lying on the ground, the Anadolu correspondent said.

A video from the scene showed an injured child taken by ambulance to the hospital, crying and screaming in pain due to injuries to his stomach and hand as a result of the bombing. He appealed to the paramedics to administer anaesthesia to him before intervening to treat him.

A toddler appeared in his mother’s arms with blood coming from his nose, while a paramedic tried to sterilise his wound.

On Wednesday, at least 50 people were buried in a mass grave in Deir Al-Balah.

The City’s Mayor, Diab Al-Jarro, said: “We bury our dead in mass graves. Our graves no longer accommodate the large number of martyrs.”

Earlier yesterday, the spokesman for the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Ashraf Al-Qudra, announced that the death toll from the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip since 7 October had risen to 17,177 in addition to 46,000 wounded, 70 per cent of whom were women and children.

Israel has intensified its bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip since the end of the week-long humanitarian truce.

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