An attack on al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, a Christian-run medical complex in central Gaza City, killed 200 to 300 people on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The ministry’s spokesman, Ashraf Al Qudra, estimated that at least 200 were injured.
Officials in Gaza and in Israel blamed each other for the carnage.
Al Qudra said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) had targeted the hospital for bombing. Hamas also blamed Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that, saying, “It was barbaric terrorists in Gaza that attacked the hospital in Gaza, and not the IDF.”
Photos of the hospital showed fire engulfing the halls, shattered glass and body parts scattered across the wreckage. Videos posted to a Palestinian paramedic’s Instagram stories show first responders arriving at the hospital and taking bloodied bodies out.
Looking visibly shell-shocked in a video shared with NBC News, Dr. Ghassan Abu-Sittah said there were three artillery attacks on the hospital. “Part of the roof started to fall,” he said, as he was treating a patient for a jugular injury.
If the hospital bombing death toll of 200-300 is confirmed, it would be the deadliest incident inside Gaza since Hamas’ terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7.
Doctors Without Borders said on the X platform that it was “horrified” by the bombing.
“This is a massacre. It is absolutely unacceptable,” the organization said in a statement.
The World Health Organization said it “strongly condemns the attack.”
“The hospital was operational, with patients, health and care givers, and internally displaced people sheltering there. Early reports indicate hundreds of fatalities and injuries,” it said in a statement.
The WHO also said Israel’s orders to evacuate the north side of the Gaza Strip last week — the equivalent of 1.1 million people — “has been impossible to carry out” for al Ahli and other hospitals.
Before the hospital bombing, the estimated death toll in Gaza was more than 3,000 people, with more than 12,500 estimated to be injured.
Israel’s evacuation orders came as it appeared ready to launch a ground invasion into Gaza, bringing scores of military equipment to the border after Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 people and wounded 4,000 people in kibbutzim, at a musical festival and in streets across the south.
The situation for civilians in Gaza has grown increasingly dire as Israel continues its airstrikes and imposes a blockade of water, food, fuel, medical supplies and electricity. Those resources are now in short supply, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled south.
The bombing is the latest hit to the medical community in Gaza, which is already on the brink of collapse. Hospitals have provided refuge for people trying to escape the bombardment of the besieged enclave since last week.
Dr. Ahmad Moghrabi, head of plastic surgery at Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, likened the medical situation in Gaza to a “disaster,” and said most of his patients are women and children.
“It’s like earthquake, everybody under attack,” he said in a video diary sent to NBC News on Tuesday, where he is seen sobbing at his desk. “Even my child — 3 years old, she got injured. Really, it’s pitiful — my heart. Really, I’m speaking to you, I want to cry.”
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared “three days of general mourning” for the victims of the hospital attack, according to the Palestinian news agency.
Bianca Britton contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
