Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, one of the last remaining operating hospitals in northern Gaza, ceased operations on Tuesday after it was stormed by the Israeli army, its director said.
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The Israeli army besieged this hospital in Gaza City, arresting several doctors, nurses and the wounded and destroying part of the premises, the facility's director, doctor Fadel Naïm, told AFP.
“The invasion of the occupying army put the hospital out of operation. We cannot accept patients or injured people,” he told AFP.
Four people injured in an Israeli fire in hospital on Monday died on Tuesday, he added.
Al-Ahli Arab, also called the Baptist Hospital, had already been damaged after an explosion in its parking lot on October 17, which Hamas authorities said killed more than 400 people.
Hamas blamed the explosion on an attack by Israel, which denied this and claimed it had “evidence” that it was a miss by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
According to the aid organizations working there, the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is further deteriorating due to the Israeli bombing raids.
Despite the arrival of humanitarian aid, there are still severe shortages of water, electricity and food.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was admitting “critical patients” from neighboring Al-Chifa Hospital “for surgical procedures.”
Al-Chifa, the largest hospital complex in the Gaza Strip, is no longer in minimal operation and is operating with a very small team after it was attacked in November by a large-scale operation by the Israeli army, which accuses Hamas of using it as a hospital complex command center .
Gaza's health ecosystem is therefore severely destabilized, with less than a third of hospitals still operational, and only partially so, according to the UN.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, which was triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian movement on Israeli soil on October 7, hospitals have been hit by Israeli attacks on several occasions.
In total, 1,140 people, mostly civilians, were killed that day, according to an AFP count based on the latest official Israeli figures.
In retaliation, Israel, which had vowed to destroy the Islamist movement, has been bombing the Gaza Strip since October 7, killing more than 19,450 people, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas government.