The Israeli Army is already in the center of Gaza and has intensified in recent hours the attacks against the city’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, where Israel believes Hamas has tunnels leading to the organization’s headquarters. The health center received several hits during the night and Israeli snipers reportedly shot at civilians who were trying to flee the center, according to what health personnel told the Palestinian Red Crescent. In the hospital there are still 1,500 patients, 1,500 medical staff and between 15,000 and 20,000 people from northern Gaza who are staying in the center, seeking refuge, according to data from the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The hospital director, Mohammed Abu Selmiya, stated that the facilities have been left without electricity. “Medical devices have stopped. Patients, especially those in intensive care, started to die,” she told Al Jazeera broadcaster by phone. Selmiya’s testimony coincides with other workers at the center and she stated that the Israeli Army had shot civilians who were trying to flee the hospital. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have announced that they have lost communication with their colleagues in the hospital. At least two premature babies died last night due to lack of electricity.
In another airstrike near the Mahdi maternity hospital in Nasr, northwest Gaza, two doctors were killed and several displaced people were injured. For its part, Al Quds hospital in Gaza City has announced that it is no longer operational due to the lack of fuel and medical supplies.
The Israeli bombings last night also affected an office of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) where dozens of Gazans have also taken refuge. According to the organization, several people were killed or injured in the attack, although the total number has not yet been revealed. “This is wrong in every way,” the UNDP chief said in a tweet. Achim Steiner. “Civilians, civilian infrastructure and the inviolability of UN facilities must always be protected,” she warned.
During the morning of Sunday the Israeli Army bombed the south of the Gaza Strip, in the city of Jan Yunis – where thirteen civilians died – and also the Rafah crossing, the only access to the outside in the entire Strip, which connects Gaza with Egypt.