Gaza hospital hit by Israeli strike, Hamas-run health ministry says

An Israeli air strike has destroyed part of a hospital in Gaza City, the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry has said.

Witnesses said the strike destroyed the intensive care and surgery departments of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, the main medical facility in Gaza City.

Video posted online appeared to show huge flames and smoke rising from the hospital after missiles hit a two-storey building. People, including some patients still in hospital beds, were filmed rushing away from the site.

Israel said it was looking into reports of the strike. No casualties were reported, according to the civil emergency service.

The health ministry said the building was “completely destroyed”, leading to the “forced displacement of patients and hospital staff”.

A local journalist, who was working at the hospital, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had phoned a doctor who was operating in the emergency department and asked them to evacuate the hospital immediately.

“All patients and displaced people must go out to a safe distance,” the officer reportedly said.

“You have only 20 minutes to leave.”

Footage on social media showed staff and patients leaving the building while it was still dark outside.

Dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, were also seen fleeing from a courtyard inside the hospital where they had been seeking shelter.

Al-Ahli – a small medical facility before the war – is now the only hospital still functioning in Gaza City following the destruction of Al-Shifa medical complex and hospitals in the northern part of the Strip.

In its statement, the Hamas-run government media office condemned the attack.

Israel “is committing a horrific crime by targeting Al-Ahli Hospital, which houses hundreds of patients and medical staff”, it said.

In October 2023, an attack on the same hospital killed hundreds of people.

Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli strike for the blast. Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied responsibility.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 50,933 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Of those, 1,563 have been killed since 18 March, when Israel restarted its offensive in the Gaza Strip, the ministry said.