Israeli army hits Al-Shifa Hospital complex, leaving numerous casualties

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli warplanes struck the outpatient building within the Al-Shifa Hospital complex.

It added that dozens of Palestinians were killed and injured in the Israeli attack, most of them children and women.

Gaza’s government, which reported a death toll of 13, and the director of Gaza City’s Al-Shifa hospital blamed Israeli forces for the strike. Israel did not immediately comment.

Al-Shifa hospital director Mohammad Abu Salmiya reported two people were killed and 10 wounded in a strike that he said hit the compound’s maternity ward.

Palestinian journalists who were inside the hospital published horrific scenes on social media showing the attack on the hospital along with several dead and injured people, most of them children and women.

“There is no safe place left. The army hit Al-Shifa. I don’t know what to do,” said 32-year-old Abu Mohammad, who was among those seeking refuge at the hospital. “There is shooting… at the hospital. We are afraid to go out.”

Almost all hospitals in the besieged Gaza Strip came under Israeli attacks and airstrikes in the last 24 hours, including Al-Shifa, which saw at least four rounds of Israeli airstrikes in the same period.

Attacks on civilian facilities such as hospitals are prohibited under the rules of war. Israel has claimed Hamas is taking shelter in or around Gaza hospitals, but rights groups say they have found no evidence of this.

Israel has launched relentless air and ground attacks on the Gaza Strip – including hospitals, residences, and houses of worship – since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Oct. 7.

Israel has killed at least 10,812 Palestinians, including 4,412 children and 2,918 women. The Israeli death toll, meanwhile, is nearly 1,600, according to official figures.