Israeli air strike destroys part of last fully functional hospital in Gaza City

An Israeli air strike has destroyed part of al Ahli Arab Hospital, the last fully functional hospital in Gaza City.

Witnesses said the strike destroyed the intensive care and surgery departments of the hospital.

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

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it targeted the hospital because it contained a "command and control centre used by Hamas". No casualties were reported, according to Gaza's civil emergency service.

However, one child, who previously suffered a head injury, died as a result of "the rushed evacuation process", according to a statement from the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, part of the Anglican Church, which runs the hospital.

Surrounding buildings, including St Philip's church, were also damaged, the diocese said.

It added that it was "appalled" at the bombing of the hospital "on the morning of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week".

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said al Ahli Arab Hospital's building was "completely destroyed", leading to the "forced displacement of patients and hospital staff".

The IDF said it had taken steps "to mitigate harm to civilians or to the hospital compound, including issuing advanced warnings in the area of the terror infrastructure, the use of precise munitions, and aerial surveillance".

A local journalist, who was working at the hospital, said the 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.

Khalil Bakr told BBC Arabic's Gaza Lifeline programme that he and his three injured daughters had fled the hospital with only a couple of minutes to spare before it was bombed.

"It was terrifying," he said. "The whole situation was difficult because I have already been injured. And as for my three daughters, one had her leg amputated, the other had her hand amputated, and the third had her body full of platinum plates."

He added: "Only two minutes separated us from death."

Part of the hospital was reduced to rubble by the strike

Al Ahli Arab - a small medical facility before the war - was the only fully functional hospital in Gaza City, following the destruction of Al-Shifa medical complex and other hospitals in the northern part of the Strip.

World Health Organization director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the hospital was out of service following the evacuation order and attack, according to an update he received from the hospital's director.

Dr Ghebreyesus highlighted how a child had died after a disruption to care, and said the hospital had been forced to move 50 patients to other hospitals, but was unable to move 40 critical patients and could not receive new patients until repairs are carried out.

"Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law. Attacks on health care must stop," he stated.

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

Israel was "committing a horrific crime by targeting al Ahli Arab, which houses hundreds of patients and medical staff", it said.

UK Foreign Minister David Lammy said such "deplorable attacks must end", adding: "Israel's attacks on medical facilities have comprehensively degraded access to healthcare in Gaza."

The Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell said in a statement: "For the only Christian hospital in Gaza to be attacked on Palm Sunday is especially appalling.

"I share in the grief of our Palestinian brothers and sisters in the Diocese of Jerusalem. I pray for the staff and patients of the hospital, and for the family of the boy who tragically died during the evacuation."

In October 2023, an explosion at 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 armed group Palestinian Islamic Jihad, 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.