Gaza’s civil defence agency said at least 28 people were killed yesterday in Israeli strikes surrounding the European Hospital in Khan Younis.
A footage from the aftermath of the strike showed large craters gouged into the ground and cracks in the courtyard outside the hospital. A damaged bus was lodged in one of the holes.
Reuters’ footage showed heavy damage to one of the hospital buildings, including to the medical equipment and beds inside.
“It was an utterly catastrophic scene,” Amro Tabash, a local photojournalist said.
“Everyone inside the hospital – patients and wounded alike – was running in fear, some on crutches, others screaming for their children, while others were being dragged on beds,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the military said it had struck Hamas fighters “operating from within a command and control centre” at Nasser Hospital, also in Khan Younis.
The strike also killed a well-known Palestinian journalist whom it accused of working with Hamas and was recovering in hospital from an earlier strike, the territory’s health ministry said.
Israel accused Hassan Aslih, who has hundreds of thousands of followers on social media platforms, of taking part in the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that triggered the war in Gaza.
It said Aslih had documented and uploaded footage of “looting, arson and murder” during the Hamas-led incursion into Israel.
Ahmed Siyyam, a Gaza civil emergency service member, told Reuters the attack hit the third floor of a Nasser Hospital building in the southern city of Khan Younis, where dozens of patients and injured were being treated.
Two patients, including Aslih, were killed and several others were wounded, the health ministry said.`
The Israeli military said it had struck a “Hamas command centre” beneath the hospital. It accuses Hamas of exploiting hospitals and civilian properties for military purposes, which the group denies.
According to the International Federation of Journalists, at least 160 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war.
Officials in Gaza, where Hamas took control in 2007, put the number at 215, and accuse Israel of deliberately targeting journalists. Israel denies targeting journalists and says it tries to avoid harm to civilians.
Aslih headed the Alam24 news outlet and worked as a freelance photojournalist. He had previously worked with several Western news organisations. He was wounded last month in a deadly strike on a tent in the Nasser hospital compound.
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