Palestinian Red Crescent denounces Israel's targeting of Al-Amal Hospital, calls for urgent protection

GAZA - The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) condemned Israeli occupation bombing near the Society’s Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

This incident led to the death of 10 people and injury to at least 21 others. It follows the occupation army's bombing in front of the hospital resulting in the death of 31 people and the injury of 25 others, the majority of whom are displaced people seeking shelter in the PRCS headquarters and the hospital.

"The hospital currently houses about 14,000 displaced persons who sought refuge there after being forced to leave their homes due to continued Israeli bombing,” Palestinian News and Information Agency reported citing a statement from PRCS.

PRCS expressed deep concern over the safety of its staff working in the hospital and the Society’s headquarters, especially since Thursday’s targeting that marked the fifth incident involving the hospital and its surroundings in less than a week.

Prior to this, the occupation forces targeted the upper floors of the Society’s headquarters with artillery shelling, resulting in several injuries among the displaced persons and the destruction of its VHF antenna, considered the only means of communication in light of the communications outage.

This outage poses a major challenge for ambulance and emergency crews in reaching the wounded and sick. A few days ago, a drone shot a 13-year-old displaced child inside the building leading to his death.

"The occupation’s intensification of targeting the vicinity of Al-Amal Hospital during the past days may be considered a prelude to targeting it directly, and we fear it will face what happened to Al-Quds Hospital affiliated with the PRCS in Gaza City, which went out of service as a result of the targeting, the siege, and the prevention of humanitarian and medical supplies,” PRCS stated.

It appealed to the international community and partners in the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement to intervene immediately and urgently to protect Al-Amal Hospital and its medical staff, the wounded, the sick, and about 14,000 displaced persons.

This should be done in accordance with international humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention. - BERNAMA-WAFA