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TEL AVIV – An Israeli attack on an ambulance outside Gaza City’s main hospital killed at least 15 people and wounded another 60 on Friday, Gaza’s health ministry said. Photos and videos of the aftermath geolocated by The Washington Post showed scenes of carnage and destruction, with bodies crumpled on the sidewalk and passersby rushing to carry the wounded onto the hospital grounds.
The attack was the latest attack on health infrastructure in Gaza, where Israeli forces are waging a large-scale offensive to destroy Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules the territory. More than 9,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began on October 7. Israel launched its campaign in response to a brutal attack by Hamas on Israeli communities near the border that killed at least 1,400 people.
The Israeli military confirmed Friday that its plane attacked the ambulance, saying in a statement that the vehicle was “used by a Hamas terrorist cell.”
“Several Hamas terrorists were killed in the attack,” the Israel Defense Forces said, adding that they had provided more detailed information to “the intelligence services with which we cooperate.”
The area around al-Shifa Hospital in the heart of Gaza City has been described as a “battle zone.” Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of using the hospital as a command and control center, an accusation the group has denied.
The dead and wounded seen in the videos reviewed by The Post included women and children, and no weapons or people in military fatigues were seen. A graphic video filmed by Gaza content creator Ahmed Hijazee showed the interior of the ambulance targeted in the attack, including a lone patient lying on a stretcher.
The ambulance appeared to be one of six in a convoy carrying injured patients from Al-Shifa hospital to southern Gaza. The convoy was announced by the Gaza Strip Health Ministry two hours before the strike. In a statement, the ministry said the ambulances would leave at 4 p.m. local time and would “transport a large number of wounded people.”
She also said she had not received Israeli approval for the convoy, which she normally negotiates through the International Committee of the Red Cross, and called on the organization to accompany the ambulances.
At 4:11 p.m., a Telegram post from the Palestinian news organization Alkofiya said the convoy was on its way. At 4:34 p.m., journalist Muthanna al-Najjar wrote in a post that dozens of people were injured and killed in the strike outside al-Shifa Hospital.
The convoy was returning to the hospital gate when it was hit, said Mohamed Abu Selima, the hospital’s director. The strike occurred “in a very crowded place,” he said. According to witnesses, tens of thousands of people displaced from their homes in northern Gaza sought refuge in and around Al-Shifa Hospital and were crowded into the area at the time.
Ismail al-Ghoul, a journalist in Gaza who filmed the immediate aftermath of the explosion, said the convoy was hit three times: once on Al-Rashid Street, the nearby coastal road, and once on Al-Rashid Street, the nearby coastal road. once at the Ansar roundabout, about half a mile away; and a third time at the entrance to the hospital.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which had an ambulance in the convoy, said in a statement that the convoy was attacked at 4:30 p.m. while it was on Al-Rashid Street. A shell landed nearby and caused damage, but the convoy continued towards al-Shifa Hospital. As it arrived, there was another attack that “directly hit” a Health Ministry ambulance, significantly damaged a Red Crescent ambulance, and killed and injured dozens of passing civilians.
“They bombed the door of the hospital!” Bisan Owda, a 25-year-old filmmaker who was at the scene, said in a video posted on Instagram. “It’s a massacre. Thousands of people are outside,” she said.
In videos and photos geolocated by The Post, at least a dozen dead and wounded people can be seen lying on the ground around a damaged ambulance near the hospital entrance.
Both the Red Crescent ambulance and a car parked nearby show signs of damage: the ambulance’s front right bumper is torn off, the windshield is cracked, the parked car’s windows are burst, and both vehicles are sagging dented inside and have scars and small holes.
“Our colleagues were saved by a miracle,” the Red Crescent tweeted. Release of footage of an ambulance covered in blood.
Marc Garlasco, a former chief of high-value targeting and a combat damage assessment analyst at the Defense Department, said the fragmentation pattern at the scene suggests the attack was likely carried out with a Spike missile, “Israel’s weapon of choice.” Decapitation of leadership. Goals.”
Garlasco, who assessed the spike attacks in Gaza in 2009, said he believed the Israeli military had moved to “dynamic attacks” to hunt down Hamas leaders, as opposed to pre-planned attacks on known targets.
In carrying out such attacks, he said, the military “fails to carry out the more granular and granular controls that could protect civilians, thereby increasing the potential for civilian harm and making dynamic attacks far more dangerous to the population.”
Even if Hamas used the ambulance to commit harmful acts, an attack would not be legitimate under the laws of war, said Brian Finucane, senior adviser at the International Crisis Group. He said customary international humanitarian law still requires warning of an attack and other measures to minimize harm to civilians.
“Given the obvious civilian harm caused by the attack near Al-Shifa Hospital, this attack raises serious questions about compliance with the laws of war, including but not limited to how the IDF assesses the excessive harm to civilians “When it attacks targets it considers to be lawful,” he said.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “deeply shocked” by reports of the attacks on ambulances. “We reiterate: patients, health workers, facilities and ambulances must be protected at all times. Always,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Strikes and shelling were also reported on Friday near Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City and the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza.
videos Images shared by PRCS and verified by Storyful showed a large plume of smoke originating from an apparent impact near al-Quds Hospital in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City. Other videos posted Friday and geolocated by The Post on the edge of the Indonesian hospital complex show multiple plumes of smoke rising in the distance. About a quarter-mile away, video shows a crater next to a partially destroyed building as a crowd carries away an injured man.
“The humanitarian situation we have witnessed in the hospitals in the northern part of Gaza is catastrophic and continues to worsen,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement.
“Medical patients have the right to appropriate medical treatment. Medical transport, facilities and personnel enjoy special protection under international humanitarian law.”