Rafah, Gaza, Nov 4 (EFE).- Several people were killed and injured as Israel bombed a Gaza hospital and a school that housed thousands of Palestinians displaced by the escalating conflict between the Islamist Hamas group and the Israeli military.
The Gaza health ministry said the Israel strike at the Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia killed at least 15 people and injured dozens.
“The massacre at the Al-Fakhoura school committed by the Israeli occupation this morning left 15 dead and 70 wounded,” the ministry said.
Another attack by Israeli forces at the gate of the Al Nasr children’s hospital killed two and wounded many, said the ministry.
Some 4,500 Palestinians from Beit Lahia and Jabalia, in the north of the war-torn strip, were taking refuge in the UN-run school, when it was bombed, according to Gazan sources.
“A girl who was under the rubble asked the paramedics who rescued her: Will you take me to the cemetery,” a health ministry spokesperson said.
Israeli forces attacked several electrical generators, including that of the Al Wafa hospital, and bombed solar cells in residential buildings and the Al Amal Institute for Orphans, Gaza governemnt spokesperson Salamah Maruf said.
The attacks come a day after Israel bombed an ambulance convoy that was evacuating wounded from Shifa hospital in Gaza City, leaving 15 dead and 60 wounded.
The Israeli army defended the attack, saying the ambulance was being used by “a Hamas terrorist cell,” but offered no evidence to support the claim.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said he felt “horrified” by the incident.
Israel declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7, when fighters of the Islamist group carried out a massive attack on Israeli territory that left more than 1,400 dead (mostly civilians), 5,400 injured, and at least 241 kidnapped.
Since then, the Israeli army has relentlessly bombed the enclave. A week ago, the military began a ground incursion that advanced to Gaza City.
Israel’s military offensive on the Palestinian enclave has left almost 9,500 dead (most of them children and women), over 24,000 injured and some 1.5 million displaced, who suffer extremely difficult living conditions due to the collapse of hospitals and the acute shortages of drinking water, food, medicine, electricity, and fuel.
“The Israeli occupation has deliberately attacked 105 health facilities and left 16 hospitals and 32 primary care centers out of service,” the Gaza health ministry said, adding that 150 health workers have died and 27 ambulances have been destroyed in the attacks.
The international pressure for a humanitarian ceasefire has been mounting to de-escalate the conflict.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Israel on Friday for the third time since the war broke out to mediate a ceasefire.
But the suggestion was met with a resounding no from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The shortage of medical supplies, personnel and electricity has aggravated the condition of many wounded and sick.
Egypt has authorized specific openings of its border with the Gaza Strip for the evacuation of patients, as well as for the departure of foreigners and the provision of humanitarian aid.
The Rafah border crossing was expected to open on Saturday for the evacuation of the wounded, while the Israeli Army announced that it would allow the passage of civilians heading towards the south of the strip for three hours. EFE
amb-yo-ssk
