Gaza Civil Defense announced this Sunday, December 29, that at least seven people had been killed in a strike on a hospital which, according to the Israeli army, housed fighters from the Palestinian movement Hamas and was no longer functional.
“An Israeli strike on the upper floor of al-Wafaa hospital in the center of Gaza City (north) left seven martyrs and several injured, some in serious condition”declared in a press release the Civil Defense of the Palestinian territory, scene of more than a year of war with Israel.
“Building is not used as a hospital,” IDF says
The Israeli army said it had carried out a “targeted strike” against a Hamas anti-aircraft defense unit which it said was using the establishment as a command center “to prepare and launch terrorist attacks” against his troops. “The building is not currently used as a hospital”she clarified.
The Hamas government’s health ministry for the Gaza Strip said the facility was “partially functional”. “Patients with physical disabilities are treated there”the director general of the ministry Mounir al-Barch told AFP.
“The hospital had been restored and was preparing to receive patients”he added. “It could have reopened normally in the coming days if it had not been hit today (Sunday) by Israel.”
Gaza’s last major hospital ‘out of service’ since yesterday
This strike on al-Wafaa comes the day after the end of a large-scale Israeli operation which «hors service»according to the World Health Organization, the last major hospital still operational in northern Gaza, Kamal Adwan.
The Israeli army arrested the director of this establishment, Dr. Hossam Abou Safiya, whom it says it suspects of being a Hamas activist.
Israel has intensified its land and air offensive in northern Gaza since October 6 to prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping.
The army regularly accuses them of using hospitals as a base to prepare and launch attacks against its troops, something the Islamist movement denies.
