UPDATES WITH FRESH ISRAELI SHELLING TARGETING DISPLACED PEOPLE
By Yakoota Dandashia
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA) - At least 12 people were killed and scores injured in the Israeli shelling of the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, said the Health Ministry in the blockaded enclave.
In a statement, the ministry warned that the lives of thousands of patients, medical personnel and displaced people “are at the risk of death as a result of the direct and repeated bombardment of the Indonesian Hospital.”
Palestine's official news agency Wafa earlier reported that eight people were killed in the Israeli artillery shelling of the hospital.
According to the broadcaster, there are 150 patients, 100 medical staff and thousands of displaced people inside the facility.
Witnesses said the Israeli shelling caused the hospital to lose electricity after its generators stopped working.
Separately, Gaza’s Interior Ministry reported casualties in a fresh Israeli shelling targeting displaced people as they left the hospital.
A ministry statement said that several people were killed and injured in the attack, but without giving an exact figure.
The Palestinian group Hamas, for its part, termed the Israeli shelling of the hospital as “a crime that requires international intervention to protect health facilities” in Gaza.
It accused Israel of pursuing a “policy to destroy the health sector as part of its effort to forcibly displace Palestinians under its bombardment, massacres, and destruction of civilian structures.”
Since Israel started bombarding Gaza on Oct. 7 following a Hamas attack, at least 13,000 Palestinians have been killed, including over 9,000 women and children, and more than 30,000 others have been injured, according to the latest figures by Palestinian authorities.
Thousands of buildings, including hospitals, mosques and churches, have also been damaged or destroyed in Israel’s relentless air and ground attacks on the besieged enclave.
An Israeli blockade has also cut Gaza off from fuel, electricity and water supplies, and reduced aid deliveries to a small trickle.
The Israeli death toll is around 1,200, according to official figures.
*Writing by Ziad Aslan in Ankara