Israel kills 38 people in Khan Yunis, storm north Gaza hospital, say medics

Gaza doctor sends crisis message from shelled hospital

A hospital director in northern Gaza, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, sent a crisis message about his hospital being hit by tank shells on Thursday 25 October. By Friday, staff, patients and those sheltering at Kamal Adwan Hospital… pic.twitter.com/vdafqrmoXG

— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) October 25, 2024

Israeli occupation strikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis killed at least 38 Palestinians overnight and Israeli forces launched a night-time raid on a hospital in the north, Palestinian officials said.

The Gaza Ministry of Health said many of the casualties from the Israeli strikes on houses in southeast Khan Yunis were women and children, with approximately 28 from the Alfarra family.

Some residents returned to the scene this morning, sifting through rubble in an attempt to retrieve some of their clothes and documents, while children looked for their toys.

At the nearby Nasser Hospital, medics prepared the dead, among them three children wrapped in the same white shroud.

In the north of the enclave, where the area around the town of Jabalia has been the target of a weeks-long offensive, health officials said Israeli forces stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of three medical facilities struggling to operate there, and stationed forces outside it.

“Since last night, at midnight, the occupation army tanks and bulldozers reached the hospital. The terrorising of civilians, the injured and children began as they [Israeli occupation forces] started opening fire on the hospital,” Eid Sabbah, the hospital’s director of nursing, said in a voice note to Reuters.

Read: More Gaza detainees will die in Israel’s jails, rights group warns

He said when the army retreated, a delegation from the World Health Organisation (WHO) arrived with an ambulance and evacuated 40 patients. Israeli tanks returned and opened fire on the hospital, striking its oxygen stores, before raiding the building and ordering staff and patients to leave, Sabbah said.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military or WHO on the hospital raid.

Israeli strikes on three houses in the nearby Gaza town of Beit Lahiya killed 25 people and wounded dozens of others, medics said.

Medics at the three hospitals have refused Israeli orders to evacuate their hospitals and leave patients unattended. They said at least 800 Palestinians have been killed in northern Gaza since the army began the new offensive three weeks ago.

“IDF troops continue their operational activity in the area of Jabalia and have eliminated dozens of terrorists, dismantled terrorist infrastructure, and located numerous weapons over the past day,” the Israeli military said.