Israeli forces attack Kamal Adwan Hospital, killing dozens in Khan Yunis – Children massacred.

By Palestine Chronicle Staff

Israeli forces raided a Gaza hospital in the north, killing children, as airstrikes devastated Khan Yunis, in the southern part of the Strip.

Israeli occupation forces stormed on Friday morning the Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. According to Al-Jazeera, Israeli soldiers ordered all patients and medical staff to gather in the hospital’s courtyard, as ongoing shelling in the area intensified.

Kamal Adwan Hospital has become a refuge for patients and staff who now find themselves unable to leave, with more than 150 people reportedly trapped inside, according to Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesman, who spoke with Al-Jazeera. The spokesman added that the hospital’s windows have been shattered due to nearby shelling, and multiple injuries have been reported among the staff.

During the Israeli raid, the hospital’s primary oxygen station was bombed, killing several children who were relying on its life-sustaining support. Israeli occupation forces also detained scores of Palestinians, including 17-year-old activist and journalist Aboud Battah. According to local journalist Anas al-Sharif, Battah was detained from the Kamal Adwan Hospital, subjected to abuse, and taken to an unknown destination.

Meanwhile, in the Al-Manara neighborhood, located south of Khan Yunis, Israeli airstrikes targeted residential homes, leading to the deaths of 38 Palestinians and the wounding of many others. According to Al-Jazeera’s correspondent, these attacks were coupled with a ground incursion by Israeli forces, supported by heavy air and artillery cover.

Eyewitnesses described scenes of extensive destruction, with entire homes reduced to rubble in residential zones where families had taken shelter. The bombardment of other areas in southern Gaza has led to further casualties. In the Qizan Al-Najjar area, two Palestinians were killed, and several others were injured when their homes were hit by artillery shells.

In a similar incident, three Palestinians were killed, and others wounded as Israeli artillery targeted the Maan neighborhood, located east of Khan Yunis.

Ongoing Genocide

Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza. Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 42,847 Palestinians have been killed, and 100,544 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023. Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip. Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children. The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba. Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(The Palestine Chronicle)