An Israeli air strike in a hospital in the south of Gaza killed at least two people, including a senior Hamas and a 16 -year -old boy, Hamas and health officials said.
Ismail Barhoum, a member of the Hamas political bureau, was killed while he was under treatment at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis on Sunday, Hamas said in a statement.
“We condemn this last crime, which adds to the long assessment of the occupation of the occupation, violating sanctities, lives and medical facilities,” the Palestinian armed group said in a statement.
“He reaffirms his contempt for all international laws and conventions and his continuous policy of systematic murder against our people and our leadership.”
The Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz confirmed that Barhoum had been the target of the attack.
The Israeli army said that the attack had been carried out with “precise ammunition in order to mitigate damage”, following a “process for collecting in -depth intelligence”.
“Hamas exploits civil infrastructure while brutally putting the population of Gazan – by cynically using an active hospital as a refuge to plan and execute deadly terrorist attacks in direct violation of international law,” the army said in a statement.
Hamas leaders were targeted as Israeli attack degenerates
The assassination of Barhoum occurred only a few hours after Hamas said that Israeli forces had killed Salah al-Bardawil, another member of the group’s political bureau, with his wife, on strike on a tent refuge at Khan Younis.
Israel has killed four members of the Hamas political office since Tuesday, when his forces have resumed major military operations in the enclave after a dead end of several weeks during the next stage of his cease-fire with Hamas.
Images outside the Nasser Hospital showed an exploding fire ball from the upper floors of the building while an Arab correspondent of Tel Aviv Tribune, Rami Abu Taima, was preparing to make a live program on the scene.
Reporting Deir El El-Balah of Gaza, Hind Khoudary of Tel Aviv Tribune said that at least eight other Palestinians had been injured in the attack, which had all received treatment for previous injuries.
Khoudary said the hospital doctors said they had spent hours extinguishing fires in the targeted department in the attack.
“Gaza Strip Hospitals are overwhelmed. There are no medical supplies or medicines because Israeli forces have continued to close the border passage for 21 days now,” Khoudary said.
“The situation also intensifies in different parts of the Gaza Strip, in particular Beit Layhia in the North and Rafah in the southern parts of the Gaza Strip.”
Feroze Sidhwa, a voluntary trauma surgeon at Nasser Hospital, said the 16 -year -old boy killed during the attack was one of his patients.
“I operated on him. I think on March 18, I did an abdominal operation. He would probably have returned home tomorrow, but now he died,” Sidhwa told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Sidhwa said that the surgical service for male patients had been destroyed and should be completely rebuilt.
“The whole hospital feels smoke now,” he said.
“The entire electrical system (from the room) has been destroyed. Each door was blown away.
Sidhwa criticized Israeli forces for targeting the hospital.
“Benjamin Netanyahu has been sick recently. Well, he is accused of genocide. No one thinks that Hamas can bomb a hospital because Benjamin Netanyahu is going.” Said Sidhwa.
“It’s completely crazy. You don’t bomb hospitals. Everyone knows it.”
According to Palestinian health officials, Israeli forces have killed more than 600 people since their assault on the enclave, including dozens in the past 24 hours.
On Sunday, the official death toll in Gaza since the start of the war exceeded 50,000 people, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, a figure which, according to many experts, is probably a real number.
