{"id":55645,"date":"2025-04-13T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-13T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=55645"},"modified":"2025-04-13T12:37:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T12:37:00","slug":"gaza-hospital-hit-by-israeli-strike-hamas-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=55645","title":{"rendered":"Gaza hospital hit by Israeli strike, Hamas says"},"content":{"rendered":"
Flames rise near the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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An Israeli strike has destroyed the intensive care and surgery departments of the main medical facility in Gaza City, Hamas has said. <\/p>\n
Video posted online appeared to show huge flames and smoke rising from Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital after missiles hit a two-storey building. People, including some patients still in hospital beds, were filmed rushing away from the site.<\/p>\n
A local journalist said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had phoned a doctor and given an evacuation warning.<\/p>\n
Hamas called the strike a “horrific crime” by Israel, which said it was looking into the reports.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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No casualties have been reported, according to the civil emergency service.<\/p>\n
The local journalist, who was working at the hospital, said an Israeli army officer called a doctor operating in the emergency department and asked them to evacuate the hospital immediately.<\/p>\n
“All patients and displaced people must go out to a safe distance,” the officer reportedly said.<\/p>\n
“You have only 20 minutes to leave.”<\/p>\n
Footage on social media showed staff and patients leaving the building while it was still dark outside.<\/p>\n
Dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, were also seen fleeing from a courtyard inside the hospital where they had been seeking shelter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Al-Ahli – a small medical facility before the war – is now the only hospital still functioning in Gaza City following the destruction of Al-Shifa medical complex and hospitals in the northern part of the Strip.<\/p>\n
In its statement, the Hamas-run government media office condemned the attack.<\/p>\n
Israel “is committing a horrific crime by targeting Al-Ahli Hospital, which houses hundreds of patients and medical staff”, it said. <\/p>\n
In October 2023, an attack on the same hospital killed hundreds of people. <\/p>\n
Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli strike for the blast. Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied responsibility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.<\/p>\n
More than 50,933 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.<\/p>\n
Of those, 1,563 have been killed since 18 March, when Israel restarted its offensive in the Gaza Strip, the ministry said, the ministry said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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