Israeli occupation forces on Thursday raided the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, and turned it into a military barrack, the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza said in a statement.
The ministry said that Israeli forces further demolished the southern wall of the complex before breaking into it amid heavy gunfire.
The Israeli army targeted the headquarters of the Red Crescent Ambulance Center housing a large number of wounded individuals as well as tents sheltering displaced people, according to the Palestinian official news agency WAFA.
PALESTINIAN MEDIA: A Palestinian was killed and others were injured as a result of an Israeli occupation army bombing at dawn on Thursday, targeting the orthopedic department at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
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— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) February 15, 2024
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks and army vehicles razed the mass graves inside the complex, which has been under a strict military siege for about 25 days.
The Israeli occupation army further forced the remaining displaced persons and families of medical personnel to forcibly evacuate the Nasser Medical Complex at dawn today under indiscriminate Israeli bombardments.
The army also ordered the administration of the Nasser Medical Complex to transfer all patients, including intensive care and nursery patients, to the old Nasser building, including six patients requiring artificial respiration.
AL-JAZEERA: Heavy gunfire and artillery shelling occurred in the vicinity of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis, south of the Gaza Strip.
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— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) February 15, 2024
The ministry also reported that the Israeli army destroyed the oxygen support and feeding tubes, resulting in a decrease in oxygen pressure inside the Complex, particularly in the intensive care department. This put the lives of hundreds of patients at an imminent risk of death, due to the ongoing Israeli shelling of the hospital.
On Wednesday, at least one person was killed and many others were injured in an attack on the hospital’s orthopedics section, according to WAFA.
Imminent Humanitarian Catastrophe
The Ministry of Health in Ramallah warned on Thursday of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe as a result of Israeli evacuation orders from the Nasser Medical Complex.
Doctors Without Borders has also expressed its deep concern over the horrific situation inside the Complex.
The occupation army has been carrying out a series of intense airstrikes and artillery shelling on Khan Yunis, and in the vicinity of the hospital, jeopardizing the safety of patients and medical personnel inside.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 28,576 Palestinians have been killed, and 68,291 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
After many days of siege, and sniping of many civilians in its vicinity, Israel bombed the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis before turning it into a military barracks, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said. https://t.co/MmwB91NsX2 pic.twitter.com/7qNsE7bTnM
— The Palestine Chronicle (@PalestineChron) February 15, 2024
Moreover, at least 8,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all of 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.
(PC, WAFA)
