Rabat – On Sunday, Israel launched an airstrike on Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, which completely destroyed the surgery department, killing at least two people and injuring several staff members.
Atef al-Hout, head of the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, said the men’s surgical unit was rendered completely non-operational as a result of the airstrike with 35 beds lost and dozens of injured patients with no recourse to treatment.
Israel claims that the attack, which was part of a series of relentless raids on the city and its surrounding areas, targeted a Hamas leader who was getting treatment at the facility. The Palestinian resistance group later issued a statement announcing the assassination of Ismail Barhoum, a non-combatant political bureau member in Gaza.
Hamas described Barhoum’s killing as a “cowardly Zionist assassination” and condemned it as a”dangerous escalation of Zionist war crimes” in what is again a collective punishment against the Palestinian people and a “grave violation of international laws and norms.”
The Nasser Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the Gaza strip, has been repeatedly shelled since October 7. The hospital has only barely started to rebuild since it went through its worst period in February 2024, when Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) stormed the complex after a weeklong siege.
The IOF targeted several areas of the hospital including the maternity ward, orthopedic unit and emergency room, causing the hospital to go out of service in just a few days.
In addition to forcibly cutting electricity upon invading the hospital, they even prevented the World Health Organization from delivering basic necessities to hundreds of patients while the hospital ran out of food, water and oxygen.
Following their withdrawal in early April, Gaza civil defense workers uncovered hundreds of mass graves containing nearly 300 bodies of all age categories including elderly women and children.
Since Israel re-escalated its aggressions on Gaza on March 18, over 700 people have been reported dead, with 70% percent of them being women and children, yet again confirming the claims that Israel deliberately kills civilians.
