The only functioning hospital in Gaza City has been forced out of service after an Israeli airstrike destroyed key medical departments.
An Israeli airstrike early Sunday morning targeted a building inside the Baptist Hospital (Al-Ahli Hospital) in Gaza City, Al-Jazeera reported.
The building, which included the reception and emergency departments, a pharmacy, and a laboratory, was hit by two missiles and completely destroyed, rendering it out of service.
Following the strike, scores of wounded and ill Palestinians were seen lying on the streets outside the hospital, unable to receive care.
Dr. Khalil Al-Daqran, spokesperson for Gaza’s Ministry of Health, said that Israeli forces had ordered the evacuation of medical staff and patients from the hospital.
He warned that disabling the only functioning hospital in Gaza City amounts to “a death sentence for the sick and wounded.”
Mohammed Zaqout, Director General of Hospitals in Gaza, emphasized that the closure of the Baptist Hospital further deepens the medical crisis, especially as it was the only facility in Gaza City and the northern region equipped with a CT scanner.
Massive destruction at Gaza’s Baptist Hospital after Israeli warplanes hit it with two missiles—emergency building completely destroyed, reception & ER damaged. Patients & nurses had just been evacuated pic.twitter.com/cjGbgac1Ns
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) April 13, 2025
He added that the Israeli military continues to block the entry of essential medical equipment, despite repeated appeals by the World Health Organization and the International Red Cross.
Dr. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, head of Al-Shifa Medical Complex, confirmed the hospital was no longer operational, leaving approximately 120 patients displaced due to extensive destruction.
Dr. Fadl Naim, the hospital’s director, described the targeting of the hospital as “a crime against humanity,” reporting that hundreds of injured people were now stranded outside the hospital with no place to go. “The message is clear,” he said. “There is no safe place in Gaza.”
Dr. Issam Abu Ajwa, a general surgery specialist at the Baptist Hospital, rejected Israeli claims that the hospital was harboring armed groups, calling the allegations false.
Reactions and Condemnation
The Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas condemned the airstrike, calling it a “new war crime” and part of a broader pattern of brutality in Gaza.
In a statement, Hamas said the attack could not have taken place without “American complicity,” holding the US administration fully responsible for providing Israel with a green light.
Heartbreaking scenes as wounded are evacuated from Gaza’s Baptist Hospital—before it was hit by an Israeli airstrike at dawn today. pic.twitter.com/fgVx8XBniJ
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) April 13, 2025
Hamas urged the international community, the United Nations, and Arab and Islamic nations to intervene immediately to stop the violations of international law.
For its part, the Islamic Jihad Movement also denounced the bombing, describing it as “a heinous crime” and “a dangerous escalation” that fits into a wider campaign targeting Gaza’s hospitals, schools, and shelters.
Part of a Pattern
The Government Media Office in Gaza stated that the bombing of the Baptist Hospital is the latest in a series of deliberate attacks, claiming that 34 hospitals have been destroyed by Israeli forces as part of a systematic campaign.
The strike took place amid ongoing air raids across the Gaza Strip. According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces also launched attacks in Gaza City and fired on the Shuja’iyya neighborhood.
Palestinian media reported that Israeli helicopters struck the area east of the city, while another Israeli airstrike killed the director of a police station in the western camp of Khan Yunis.
Ongoing Genocide
The renewed Israeli violence on March 18 has broken a ceasefire that began on January 19. The latest military actions have killed hundreds of Palestinians and injured many more, primarily civilians, including women and children.
While the violations have been condemned by numerous countries and human rights groups, the US has continued its support for Israel, asserting that the military campaign was carried out with prior knowledge and approval from Washington.
Since October 2023, Israel has killed over 50,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and left Gaza in ruins.
In November 2024, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in the besieged enclave.
(disabling the only functioning hospital in Gaza City amounts to) “a death sentence for the sick and wounded.” but, we’re labeled antisemites for calling these people savages? Who else but a savage would; bomb a hospital, shoot a child in the face, stomp on a 4 year old’s legs and chest as he gleefully plays in a sandbox? Why should we be afraid to call them what they really are? I’m not. It has nothing to do with Judaism, this is about Zionism.
” Israel ” is their Zion. The ZioNazis are murdering innocent people because the ZioNazi savages in MY corrupt US government gave them the weapons to bomb the hospital, murder those children, kill anyone they want. ” Fight War, Not Wars ” -Crass UK
It would not be possible to create a more shockingly evil holocaust than what Israel has committed against Gaza’s civilian population over the past 18 months. And, now that the Jewish supremacist “President” of the United States has supplied Israel with so many of those highly destructive 2000-pound bombs, it will therefore proceed to fully destroy the remaining buildings inside Gaza, that it previously had only partially destroyed.
Here’s an article about Israel’s extreme savagery against Gaza’s hospitals:
http://www.israelpalestinenews.org/in-gazas-hospitals-treatable-patients-face-slow-quiet-death/