Health care facilities and medical staff must be protected at all times, and warring parties must respect hospital grounds, says humanitarian group
A cease-fire is needed now to stop the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, where people are trapped under "relentless bombings," humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said on Monday.
Citing Israel's Monday airstrike targeting an area housing displaced people inside the Al Aqsa Hospital compound in Deir Al Balah, the group said the strike is the seventh time the hospital compound has been bombed since this March, including three attacks in the last month alone.
"It's a scene of devastation. Tents caught on fire while people were sleeping. The hospital treated 40 patients, including 10 children and 8 women; many of them with severe burns. 25 more injured patients had to be referred due to the lack of capacity," said Eliza Sabatini, a Doctors Without Borders nurse.
Mass casualty incidents like these would be very difficult for even a well-equipped hospital to handle, she said, adding: "In Gaza, where we continue to face heavy restrictions on medical supplies, it is simply impossible to provide adequate care to the patients."
The group stressed that repeated attacks on medical facilities in Gaza must end, health care facilities and medical staff must be protected at all times, and warring parties must respect hospital grounds.
"People in Gaza are trapped under relentless bombings. A ceasefire is needed now to stop this bloodshed,” the group said.
Four people were killed and 40 others injured when Israeli warplanes early Monday hit a hospital courtyard in the central city of Deir al-Balah, burning 30 tents where people were sleeping.
It followed the death of 22 people, including 15 children, in another airstrike on a UN school sheltering displaced civilians in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.
Images of people trapped in flames flooded social media.
During its offensive in Gaza, Israel has numerous times attacked hospitals, schools, and houses of worship – civilian sites normally off limits to attacks, raising the possibility of war crimes.
Over the last year, Israel has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians in Gaza and displaced nearly the entire population of 2.3 million people, while also generating famine-like conditions and the spread of disease.
The Israeli onslaught has displaced almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.
Mediation efforts led by the US, Egypt, and Qatar to reach a Gaza cease-fire and prisoner swap agreement between Israel and Hamas have failed over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's refusal to halt the war.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.
