An Israeli strike exterior a hospital in Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Saturday killed not less than 11 folks and injured dozens of different displaced Palestinians, together with youngsters, who had been sheltering in tents close by, the Gaza Well being Ministry stated.
At the least two well being care employees, together with a paramedic, had been amongst these killed after the strike close to the gate of the Emirati maternity hospital, the well being ministry stated.
Pictures taken by information companies confirmed colleagues of the paramedic, whom the well being ministry recognized as Abdul Fattah Abu Marai, taking his physique to the close by Kuwaiti hospital, in addition to injured youngsters mendacity on stretchers, as different youngsters seemed on and cried.
The Israeli navy stated later Saturday that, with assist from Israel’s home safety company, it had carried out a “precision strike” in opposition to “Islamic Jihad terrorists” close to the hospital. The navy declined to answer reviews that the strike had injured youngsters.
The Israeli navy had beforehand declared that Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost metropolis, could be a protected zone for civilians, and greater than half of the enclave’s total inhabitants is now crammed into it, with many residing in makeshift tents over almost each inch of accessible house.
However airstrikes on Rafah have continued even because the variety of folks sheltering there has swelled to round 1.5 million. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has vowed that his forces will invade the town whether or not or not a short lived cease-fire deal is reached, regardless of dire warnings from humanitarian teams and plenty of of Israel’s allies that any navy operation in Rafah would have catastrophic penalties for civilians.
The information of Saturday’s strike was “outrageous and unspeakable,” the chief of the World Well being Group, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated on social media, reiterating requires a cease-fire and for the safety of well being care employees and civilians.
The victims of the strike had been sheltering close to the Emirati maternity hospital, one of many final hospitals nonetheless functioning in Gaza. Regardless of having solely 5 beds remaining for ladies giving delivery, the hospital is managing greater than half of the estimated 180 births taking place every day within the enclave, stated Dominic Allen, the State of Palestine consultant for the United Nations Inhabitants Fund, a sexual and reproductive well being company referred to as U.N.F.P.A.
The Emirati hospital is basically “the final hope for pregnant ladies in the entire of Gaza,” Mr. Allen stated. A strike so near the hospital poses a “terrifying” threat to pregnant ladies, newborns and the overloaded well being care employees attempting to take care of them, he added.
