The Israeli military has bombed the compound of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, killing at least one person, injuring another seven and destroying more than a dozen tents.
The deadly attack on Friday is the latest to hit the medical facility, which has been sheltering displaced Palestinians for months and has been facing a severe shortage of medical staff, equipment and medicine.
The hospital is the only functioning facility in central Gaza, treating thousands of Palestinians. Several times since last October, Israel has bombarded the hospital in Deir el-Balah, which is one of the few areas still considered “safe” for those displaced several times from other areas to shelter.
Reporting from the hospital, Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum described the destruction at the site as extensive as he pointed to a crater that resulted from the strike.
“Palestinian refugees have left everything they have here, and they are completely destroyed, even the blankets, mattresses and beds,” he said. Some components of the Israeli weapon used were also found at the site, and one piece clearly showed that it was manufactured in the United States, according to Abu Azzoum.
Israeli forces have repeatedly and deliberately targeted medical facilities in the enclave, acts described as war crimes under the Geneva Convention.
“Al-Aqsa is a place where people are trying to be protected after the Israeli massive ground incursion. But people in this place are no longer feeling safe because of the repeated Israeli attacks,” said Abu Azzoum.
Elsewhere, four people were killed in a separate Israeli strike on a home in the Jabalia refugee camp, in northern Gaza, according to Al Jazeera’s team on the ground.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, several people were wounded in the attack on a home in the Jarn area of Jabalia.
One person was killed after Israeli forces carried out an artillery attack close to a busy street near Gaza City’s Zeitoun neighbourhood, our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues reported.
Meanwhile, five people were injured when Israeli forces struck a residential home in Deir el-Balah, Wafa reported. Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics transported the injured to the Al-Aqsa Hospital for treatment.
Several residents were injured in the eastern region of Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, following an Israeli artillery fire that hit the town of Abasan al-Kabira, Wafa reported.
In an address to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the US for its continuing support for Israel’s war on Gaza and urged the international community to stop supplying weapons to Israel.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 41,534 Palestinians and wounded 96,092, according to the latest figures released on Thursday by the Ministry of Health. More than half of the dead have been women and children, including about 1,300 babies and toddlers under the age of two.
