Khoder al-Zaanoun Agence France-Presse Palestinians walk among bodies of victims of a strike on the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City.
Adel Zaanoun – Agence France-Presse and Jay Deshmukh – Agence France-Presse respectively in the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem
7:54 p.m.
- Middle East
Deadly strikes in the northern Gaza Strip hit Friday, according to reports Palestinian officials, a school and hospitals where civilians seek refuge to escape Israeli bombings.
More than a month after the start of the war triggered by the bloody attack launched on its soil by Hamas on October 7, Israel has revised downwards the death toll from this attack to 1,200, mostly civilians.
In retaliation, Israel launched a war to “eradicate” Hamas, in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, and is relentlessly shelling the small, besieged Palestinian territory, plunged into a catastrophic humanitarian situation.< /p>
On Friday, Hamas reported 13 people dead in a strike on the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza City, the largest in the territory where the war has brought the health system “to its knees.” , according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Hamas attributed this strike to Israel, as did the hospital director, Mohammed Abou Salmiya. He also affirmed that the hospital had received “around fifty bodies after the bombing on Friday morning of a local school” welcoming displaced people.
“All the hospitals in Gaza City were targeted” on Friday by the Israeli army, the doctor assured Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The army, which did not not commented on these assertions, indicated Thursday evening that one of its divisions was carrying out major operations in an area “very, very close” to the hospital. She said Friday that she would “kill” Hamas fighters “who shoot from hospitals” in Gaza.
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“Morgues overflowing”
The director general of the WHO launched a new cry of alarm before the UN Security Council on Friday, affirming that half of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are no longer functioning “at all” and that “more than 250 attacks” have targeted health facilities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since the start of the war.
“The situation on the ground is impossible to describe: hospital corridors piled up with wounded , sick and dying, overflowing morgues, operations without anesthesia, tens of thousands of people taking refuge in hospitals,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
In the city of Gaza, which is in ruins and where basic foodstuffs are lacking, the fighting continues to increase in intensity as the columns of families fleeing towards the south grow.
In the courtyard of the In the immense al-Shifa hospital complex, Mohammed Rihane walks on crutches while the surrounding explosions resonate. “People are dying torn to pieces in the streets, and we can’t go looking for them,” he told AFP.
Stop the “carnage”
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The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, called on Friday for an end to the “carnage” in the Gaza Strip.
“Raze entire neighborhoods is not not a response to the heinous crimes committed by Hamas. On the contrary, it creates a new generation of aggrieved Palestinians who are likely to perpetuate the cycle of violence,” he said.
On October 7, Hamas commandos carried out a bloody attack on Israeli soil against civilians on a scale and violence not seen since the creation of Israel in 1948.
Since then, Israeli bombings left 11,078 dead in the Gaza Strip, mainly civilians, including 4,506 children, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
The Islamist movement, classified as a terrorist organization by Israel, United States and the European Union, also holds 239 hostages, according to the Israeli army.
In recent days, the army has declared that it is carrying out fierce fighting against Hamas in the heart of Gaza City, where, according to it, the “center” of the Palestinian movement's infrastructure is located, entrenched in a network of tunnels. .
The director of al-Shifa hospital spoke of Israeli tank fire on the maternity ward, while an AFP journalist saw at least seven bodies near the hospital.< /p>
A 32-year-old father, who gives his name as Abou Mohammed, told AFP that he took refuge in al-Shifa, in the west of Gaza City, with 15 of his relatives after bombings on his eastern district.
“No safe place”
“There is no safe place, the army hit al-Shifa “I don't know what to do anymore,” he said.
For years, Israel has accused Hamas of using hospitals to carry out attacks or hide tunnels, and civilians as human shields, which the movement denies.
“Israeli tanks are besieging four hospitals in western Gaza City,” the Hamas Health Ministry said on Friday.
Witnesses notably saw the al-Rantissi children's hospital surrounded by tanks.
The Palestinian Red Crescent indicated that Israeli snipers fired on the al-Quds hospital on Friday, speaking of at least one dead.
Israel agreed to make daily humanitarian “breaks” to allow civilians to flee the northern Gaza Strip, where the fighting is most intense, to the south, according to the United States.