Israel Bombs 141-Year-Old Baptist Hospital In Gaza
Israeli warplanes struck Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in central Gaza early Sunday, destroying its main reception building and rendering the hospital inoperable amid ongoing Israeli air raids on the besieged enclave.
It is the second time Israel, which has so far bombed 34 hospitals, is bombing the Baptist hospital, the first been on Oct. 17, 2023 when it killed 471 Palestinians and hundreds more.
According to reports, two missiles hit the hospital, setting fires and causing severe damage to the emergency ward, laboratory, and pharmacy.
Medical staff at the scene confirmed that the hospital was forced out of service and can no longer receive victims of Israel’s continued airstrikes.
The hospital, located in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, has been a vital lifeline for more than one million Palestinians in Gaza and North Gaza governorates, especially after the destruction of several major hospitals in the strip since October 2023.
In a statement, the Government Media Office in Gaza said Israel “committed a new horrific war crime” by striking a facility that housed patients, wounded civilians, and medical personnel.
“This cowardly aggression is not the first of its kind,” it added, recalling the Oct. 17, 2023 bombing of the same hospital, which left 471 Palestinians dead and hundreds more injured.
The office accused Israel of “deliberately targeting health institutions as part of a systematic campaign to collapse Gaza’s healthcare system.”
“So far, 34 hospitals have been destroyed or forced out of service,” the office said.
It also held Israel, the US, and European governments, including the UK, Germany, and France, fully responsible for the latest attack.
The Palestinian group Hamas also condemned the strike, calling it “a new war crime” and accusing Israel of “acting with impunity under American cover.”
“This criminal act confirms that we are facing a rogue regime that disregards all humanitarian laws,” the group said, urging international bodies and Arab and Islamic nations to take “immediate action to halt Israel’s genocidal war.”
Founded in 1882 and operated by the Anglican Episcopal Church in Jerusalem, Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital is one of Gaza’s oldest medical institutions. It became the primary hospital in northern Gaza following the destruction of the Al-Shifa Medical Complex and other major facilities in earlier attacks.
With nearly all hospitals in Gaza either destroyed or severely crippled, Al-Ahli had been receiving dozens of wounded civilians daily since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, shattering the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.
More than 50,900 Palestinians, most of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza in a brutal Israeli onslaught since October 2023.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants last November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
