In its latest assault on the decimated health system of Gaza, Israel has again targeted the Indonesian hospital in the north of Gaza, this time with drones, because its forces also carry out an offensive on the ground in the north and southern bombed territory.
Health officials said late Sunday that fighting around the Indonesian Gaza Hospital and an Israeli military “seat” forced him to close.
It was the main medical establishment in the North after Israeli air strikes last year, Kamal Adwan and Beit Hanoon hospitals to stop providing health services.
“There is direct targeting at the hospital, including the intensive care unit,” said the director of the Indonesian hospital, Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, in a statement, adding that no one could reach the establishment, which had around 30 patients and 15 members of medical staff inside.
Israel has repeatedly targeted hospitals during his 19 -month war against Gaza. Defense groups of human rights and experts supported by the United Nations accused Israel of having systematically destroyed the Gaza health system.
Earlier, Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of the Al -Shifa hospital in the north of the besieged enclave, said the latest strikes on Sunday – which have been continuing since Saturday – indicate that Israeli attacks against Gaza hospitals are intensifying.
“The medical teams really suffer, and we have a number of medical teams and staff … and many people need (of) more medical care,” said Abu Salmiya on phone from the hospital on Sunday.
Thousands of sick and injured people could die, he warned. Blood donations are urgent.
This was underlined by the Gaza Ministry of Health, which confirmed that Israeli forces attended the establishment of Beit Lahiya, adding that “a state of panic and confusion prevails”.
The ministry later said that Israel had cut the arrival of patients and staff, “forcing the hospital out of service.”
With “the closure of the Indonesian hospital, all public hospitals in the governorate of North Gaza are now out of service,” he said.
Gaza health establishments have been targeted several times throughout the deadly attack in Israel which started 18 months ago.
The other northern facilities that have been bombed, burned and besieged by the Israeli army since the start of the war include Kamal Adwan Hospital, Al-Shifa Hospital, Al-Ahli Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital. Dozens of other clinics, stations and medical vehicles have also been attacked.
The targeting of health establishments, medical staff and patients is considered a war crime within the framework of the Geneva Convention in 1949.
Israel also beat several hospitals in the central and southern regions of Gaza, including the Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir El-Balah and the Nasser medical complex in Khan Younis.
Earlier this week, Israel struck two hospitals in Khan Younis. Nine missiles struck and around the courtyard of the European Gaza Hospital, killing at least 16 people, while an attack on the Nasser medical complex killed two people, including an injured journalist.
The incessant attacks against the Gaza health care sector have left it in shock, devastating its ability to operate, while doctors say they are out of medicine to treat routine conditions.
Hospitals were also about the total collapse in the middle of a brutal and continuous blockade, where Israel continues to intervene at the entrance to essential medical supplies, fuel and other humanitarian aid, including food and clean water.
The crisis in Gaza has reached one of its darkest periods, warn humanitarian officials, while famine is also looming.
Israeli air strikes have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the last 72 hours.
Strikes over the weekend have also put the European hospital, the only remaining establishment providing cancer treatments in Gaza, excluding service.
The Khoudary Hinding of Tel Aviv Tribune, postponing Deir El-Balah, said that dozens of Palestinians have been injured, and doctors say “they are confronted with many challenges in the treatment of injuries due to a lack of medical supplies”.
“Israeli air strikes in Gaza are still intensifying while drones and fighter planes hover in the sky,” said Khoudary.
The number of deaths reached the same level of intensity as the first days of war, said Emily Tripp, executive director of Airwars, an independent group in London who follows recent conflicts.
She says preliminary data indicates that the number of incidents where at least one person was killed or injured by Israeli fire oscillated around 700 in April. It is a figure comparable only to October or December 2023 – one of the heaviest periods of bombing.
In the last 10 days of March, estimates by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), on average, 100 children have been killed or mutilated by Israeli air strikes every day.
Nearly 3,000 of the 53,000 estimated estimated by Israel since October 7, 2023 have lost their lives since Israel broke a fragile ceasefire on March 18, the Gaza Ministry of Health said.
Among the people killed in recent days are a volunteer pharmacist at the Palestine children’s rescue fund, who was killed with his family on strike on Gaza City on May 4.
A midwife from Al Awda Health and Community Association was also killed with her family during another strike on May 7.
A journalist working for the television network based in Qatar Al Arabby TV, as well as 11 family members, were also killed.