The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which runs the Ahli hospital, stated that the hospital administration had obtained no less than three warnings from the Israeli navy to evacuate its wards on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. The Archbishop of the Diocese, Rev. Hosam Naoum, stated the warnings had been issued by cellphone name and textual content message on to their administration and had been separate from the overall warnings given to the greater than 1 million residents of the northern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli navy acknowledged that it did name the hospital in latest days, nevertheless it stated it was a part of a wider effort to encourage residents and neighborhood leaders in northern Gaza to flee southward — signaling {that a} floor invasion was coming. The decision was to not warn of a particular strike on the hospital, stated Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, a navy spokesman. The hospital “was not in any means a goal,” he added.
After the primary warning, the hospital workers notified the 5,000 or so individuals sheltering there. Most left and solely about 200 remained, Mr. Naoum stated. However the subsequent day, many returned, having discovered no safer place as airstrikes pounded the town.
“Each time there’s bombing, each time there’s an airstrike, individuals flee to the hospital,” Mr. Naoum stated. “It is a sanctuary for them.”
The warnings didn’t dissuade Sameh and his household from in search of refuge there. They’d joined the hundreds of people that fled their properties elsewhere in Gaza Metropolis to take shelter amid 11 days of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s intense bombardment of Gaza started on Oct. 7 in response to a shock assault by Hamas that killed roughly 1,400 individuals in Israel. Since then, Gazans have discovered that nowhere is secure, as properties, mosques, colleges and hospitals have been struck. Greater than 3,500 Palestinians have been killed for the reason that strikes started, in accordance with the Gaza well being ministry.
On Saturday, two Israeli projectiles hit the identical hospital that was struck on Tuesday evening, damaging the fourth flooring, which housed a diagnostic heart and the ultrasound and mammography models, the hospital administration stated. Nonetheless, the Israeli navy denied that it had struck that space on Saturday.
Sameh stated he and his household fled their residence in Gaza Metropolis fearing that it might be in peril from Israeli rockets, and went to stick with an aunt. However then they grew involved that her residence was underneath menace as nicely, in order that they got here to the hospital.
There, he discovered many different displaced Gazans staying within the courtyard, library and church.
“We felt it was secure, and we stated it might be secure for the little youngsters,” he stated from his hospital mattress.
However Tuesday evening, the courtyard the place simply hours earlier youngsters had been having fun with the hospital playground together with hospital workers turned a scene of carnage.
“There are nonetheless numerous our bodies they haven’t but collected,” stated Amir Ahmed, a paramedic with the Palestinian Crimson Crescent in Gaza Metropolis. “There are too many our bodies.” He stated all of the victims could be buried in a mass grave at a funeral on Wednesday.
“There’s a huge chance that they’ll simply put a quantity” on the physique luggage with none names, Mr. Ahmed added, “as a result of many are in items.”