A Palestinian medical charity has reported that Israel destroyed its main centre in Gaza City after ordering its evacuation. The Palestinian Medical Relief Society stated that an Israeli strike reduced its six-storey building in the central Samer area to rubble. The centre was one of the city’s primary facilities, providing blood donation and testing services, trauma care, cancer medicine, and chronic disease treatment.
In a separate development, Israel announced on Tuesday the complete closure of the border crossing between the occupied West Bank and Jordan until further notice. This decision follows an attack last week that killed two Israelis. The Allenby Bridge Crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is the only cargo and passenger crossing available to Palestinians in the West Bank that does not lead to Israel. It is also a key route for delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Multiple hospitals in the famine-stricken city have been forced to shut down as Israeli forces advance. Israel accuses Hamas of using medical facilities for military purposes, which could cause them to lose their protection under international law. However, the Israeli military has often provided little or no evidence of a significant militant presence in these facilities.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), which has partnered with the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, condemned the strike. “Attacks on health facilities must end. The senseless violence must stop. Ceasefire!” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
The medical charity also reported that another of its centres was damaged and surrounded by Israeli troops, while a third centre was destroyed in a separate strike. Gaza’s Health Ministry stated on Monday that the Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital and the Specialised Eye Hospital have been forced to shut down due to nearby Israeli military operations.
Israel launched a major offensive earlier this month aimed at occupying Gaza City, the territory’s largest urban area, which has already suffered heavy damage from previous raids and bombardment. Israel says the operation is intended to pressure Hamas to surrender and return the remaining 48 hostages taken during its attack on October 7, 2023, which triggered the current war. Israel believes around 20 of the captives are still alive.
The world’s leading authority on hunger crises reported last month that Israel’s blockade and ongoing offensive have pushed Gaza City into famine. More than 300,000 people have fled the city in recent weeks as Israel ordered the population to move south; however, an estimated 700,000 remain, according to UN agencies and aid groups.
On October 7, Hamas-led militants killed approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251. Most of the captives have since been released through ceasefires or other deals. The Gaza Health Ministry reports that at least 65,382 Palestinians have been killed in the war, without specifying how many were civilians or combatants. The ministry operates under the Hamas-run government, and its figures are considered by the UN and many independent experts as the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties.
https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/israel-destroys-evacuated-health-centre-in-gaza-city-medics-say-1810122.html
