Shafaq News – Gaza

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza denounced on Wednesday the Israeli strike on Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital as a “crime” aimed at dismantling the enclave’s health system, while hostilities across the territory since dawn left nearly 60 casualties.

The ministry reported that Al-Rantisi was struck three times Tuesday night, with the attacks hitting the hospital’s upper floors. As Gaza’s only specialized facility for pediatric oncology, kidney dialysis, and respiratory and gastrointestinal treatment, the hospital was caring for 80 patients at the time, in addition to four children in intensive care and eight newborns in critical condition.

The bombardment forced 40 patients and their families to flee in search of safety, while another 40 remained inside alongside 12 critical cases and 30 members of the medical staff, it added, calling for international protection of hospitals, medical workers, and patients.

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The ministry also accused Israel of deliberately obstructing World Health Organization efforts to deliver fuel to Gaza’s hospitals, warning that major facilities such as Al-Sahaba Medical Complex, Al-Khidma Hospital, the central oxygen plant, and ambulance fleets would soon cease to function. “The collapse of Gaza’s oxygen production and ambulance system would mark the onset of a catastrophic health disaster,” it cautioned.

As for the few hospitals that remain operational in Gaza City, the ministry described severe overcrowding, with emergency rooms stretched beyond capacity, medical teams working with exhausted stocks of essential drugs and supplies, and critical shortages in blood units hampering urgent surgeries.

Meanwhile, casualties continued to rise across the Strip. At Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, five people were confirmed dead after an Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering displaced families in Al-Mawasi. In northern Rafah, more than 50 people were wounded and two killed while waiting for aid near a distribution center. A drone strike in western Khan Younis injured a man, while a mother and her child lost their lives when their apartment building was bombed in Gaza City.

According to the Health Ministry, the war since October 7, 2023, has killed 64,964 people and injured 165,312. Among the victims are 2,497 people killed and more than 18,000 wounded while seeking livelihood, and 428 who died of hunger, including 146 children. Since famine was formally declared in Gaza, 150 people, among them 31 children, have lost their lives.

Read more: Gaza's spiral: Famine and conflict lead to irreversible collapse