By Rania Abu Shamala
ISTANBUL (AA) – On Oct. 17, 2023, the Israeli army attacked the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, killing nearly 500 Palestinians and injuring over 340 others, according to health officials in Gaza.
Some of the victims had already fled to the hospital and its surroundings to find refuge following warnings and calls from the Israeli army to evacuate their homes.
Oct. 17, 2023
At 6:59 pm that day, a type of munition hit a paved area inside the hospital compound, between a parking lot and a landscaped area where many civilians congregated to seek safety from Israeli strikes, according to Human Rights Watch.
Right after the strike, an Anadolu reporter documented scenes from the hospital square, with blood and charred body parts scattered through the area as people desperately searched the bodies for relatives who were at the site at the time of the attack.
"We were in the hospital square and witnessed incendiary balloons falling from the sky, followed by rockets," Karim Al-Baltaji, 20, told Anadolu.
"I saw a crematorium — people burning, trees burning, falling on citizens," he added.
Azam Hamdan, 71, told Anadolu: "What happened to us was a barbaric act surpassing all massacres, even the Nazis."
Relating the moments before the strike, he said they were sitting in safety when a rocket suddenly struck.
"People were torn apart, and bodies were charred," Hamdan recalled.
Oct. 18, 2023
Gaza’s Health Ministry held a press conference at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital and among the bodies and remains of the victims of the Israeli attack.
“We were performing surgery at the Baptist hospital when a strong explosion occurred and the ceiling fell on the operating room…This is a massacre,” Ghassan Abu Sitta, a doctor associated with Doctors Without Borders, said during the briefing.
In a previous interview with Anadolu, Dr. Mohammad Ashraf, a Palestinian emergency doctor at Al-Shifa Hospital said that “during the bombing of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, we received 500 casualties in 25 minutes at the hospital.”
Prior to Israel’s ongoing offensive on Gaza, Ashraf had attended a mass casualty management course with the World Health Organization (WHO), in which they have been trained to handle a maximum of 90 casualties per hour.
After more than a year of the Israeli onslaught on the strip, the medical staff at Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital have endured immense suffering amidst the ongoing conflict.
“One year into the war, we have gone through many difficult times, facing shortages of food and medical supplies," Mohammed Al-Sheikh, a nurse at the hospital, told Anadolu.
"During this period, we were under siege in the hospitals, and we witnessed the occupation army assaulting our colleagues, torturing, and interrogating them."
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has destroyed 23 out of 38 hospitals, including both government and private facilities, leaving only 15 hospitals operational at limited capacity and under severe conditions.
Despite their resilience, these remaining hospitals are struggling with critical shortages of medicines and medical equipment.
Israel has systematically targeted civilian facilities, including schools, hospitals, and places of worship, amid its ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip.
Under the rules of war, targeting such civilian facilities can constitute a war crime.
Israel has continued a brutal offensive on Gaza following a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, despite a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire.
More than 42,400 people have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 99,200 injured, according to local health authorities.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.