GAZA, Palestine – An Israeli airstrike has severely damaged the intensive care and surgery departments of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, the main medical facility in Gaza City, according to Hamas.
The attack resulted in huge flames and smoke rising from the two-storey building, which was filmed on social media as patients and staff scrambled to evacuate the site.
A local journalist working at the hospital reported that an Israeli army officer contacted a doctor operating in the emergency department, warning of an imminent strike and ordering the immediate evacuation of all patients.
The officer reportedly told the doctor, “You have only 20 minutes to leave, all patients and displaced people must go out to a safe distance.”
The strike took place while the area was still dark, and footage showed dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, fleeing the hospital courtyard, where many had sought shelter from the ongoing conflict.
No casualties have been reported, according to Gaza’s civil emergency services, but the destruction of the hospital’s crucial departments raised further alarm.
Al-Ahli, once a small medical facility, is now the only hospital still functioning in Gaza City after the devastation of Al-Shifa Medical Complex and other hospitals in the northern part of the Strip.
Hamas condemned the attack, calling it a “horrific crime” by Israel, which has promised to investigate the incident.
The bombing of the hospital comes nearly a month after a previous attack on the same facility in October 2023, which resulted in hundreds of deaths.
While Palestinian officials blamed Israel for the attack, Israel stated that the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied responsibility.
The escalation comes amid Israel’s military campaign to destroy Hamas, a response to a deadly cross-border attack on October 7, 2023, which led to the deaths of over 1,200 Israelis and the kidnapping of 251 others.
Since the campaign’s restart in March 2024, more than 50,933 people have been killed in Gaza, according to Hamas-run health ministry reports.
