Rights groups say repeated attacks on medical facilities, doctors and ambulances must be investigated for war crimes.
Israeli snipers killed at least 21 Palestinians after opening fire on displaced civilians trying to reach Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, southern Gaza.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah, said Friday that snipers had surrounded the hospital and were “shooting at any moving object” as people tried to reach it from two densely populated residential neighborhoods close to the establishment.
“The area around the hospital is very dangerous and has become a combat zone,” he said, noting that the hospital is currently the only place in Khan Younis where water remains.
Rights groups said the Israeli military’s repeated attacks on medical facilities, doctors, nurses and ambulances should be investigated as war crimes.
“Hospitals and other medical facilities are civilian objects with special protections under international humanitarian law or the laws of war,” Human Rights Watch noted.
Mahmoud said this represents a “new trend of targeted killings” carried out by Israeli snipers, who shoot Palestinians in the streets. People inside the medical facility would also become easy targets in trying to recover the bodies.
“The attack drones also targeted a group of young people gathered on the roof of the hospital. Due to the communication outage, they were trying to get internet signals on their cell phones so that they could communicate with their family members,” Mahmoud reported.
Along with al-Amal Hospital, Nasser Hospital is the largest in Khan Younis. The two medical facilities have been under siege for weeks, with the Israeli army saying it had “surrounded” the area and intensified its air, land and sea offensive.
Many Palestinians, who had been forcibly displaced by previous Israeli attacks in other areas, now find themselves with few options at Nasser Hospital, with limited medical staff and patients, all of whom have little to eat or to drink.
The Israeli army has destroyed or seriously damaged dozens of medical facilities in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Friday that al-Quds hospital in northern Gaza City also suffered significant damage from Israeli tank fire.
“The Israeli army deliberately targeted the company’s headquarters and vehicles to put them out of service,” Red Crescent spokesperson Raed al-Nims said.
And this, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been forced in recent weeks to flee Khan Younis towards Rafah, further south, on the border with Egypt.
More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents are now in Rafah, the last place previously designated as a “safe zone” by the Israeli army. Israel has announced plans to launch a ground attack on Rafah soon, ignoring “catastrophe” warnings from the United States and the United Nations.
“I think we should be pushing to avoid tragedy instead of pushing to make things easier for tragedy,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday after being asked if he would insist that the border with Egypt be opened to drive out the Palestinians. from the Gaza Strip.