I would ‘prefer to be in hell than be in Gaza right now’
Mads Gilbert, an emergency medicine doctor who has spent extensive time working in Gaza, says the attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital is in effect “a death sentence to anyone who sustains major injury or trauma or has a surgical condition” in northern Gaza.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Tromso, Norway, Gilbert said he knows the hospital well and described it as “a well-run, very important medical institution in north Gaza”.
Referring to Israel’s claim that Hamas was using the hospital, Gilbert said the Israeli military “has never, ever been able to show any evidence or proof that the Palestinian hospitals” that have repeatedly come under attack were being used as “command centres”.
“What kind of cowardly, sadistic and completely amoral army will attack a hospital with sick and wounded people in the middle of the night?” Gilbert asked.
“I think I actually prefer to be in hell than to be in Gaza now … because what’s going on is a very systematic, very cynical and … sadistic way of undermining people’s capacity to live,” he said.
Israel has bombed and burned 35 hospitals during Gaza war
The attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital overnight is a continuation of the Israeli army’s systematic targeting of healthcare facilities across the Gaza Strip since its war on the Palestinian enclave began in October 2023.
The Government Media Office in Gaza has published a list of 35 hospitals – including al-Ahli Hospital – that Israeli forces have attacked during the ongoing war.
Here are just a few examples of other attacks:
- In November 2023, Israeli tanks surrounded the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya and fired artillery at the complex, killing at least 12 Palestinians.
- Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was subjected to a prolonged Israeli siege starting in March 2024. By early April last year, the World Health Organization reported that the facility, Gaza’s largest medical complex, was “in ruins” and no longer functional. Dozens of bodies were later recovered from the hospital grounds and surrounding areas, indicating that patients and medical staff had been killed and placed in mass graves.
- In March 2024, an Israeli nighttime attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis killed two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy who had undergone surgery two days earlier.
- At least 50 people were injured in the same month in an Israeli drone attack next to the entrance of the al-Helal al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in the Tal as-Sultan area of Rafah city.
- In May, Rafah’s Kuwaiti Speciality Hospital was forced to shut down after an Israeli attack just outside the gates of the hospital killed two of its medical staff.
- In December, Israeli soldiers stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, torching large sections, ordering hundreds of people to leave and kidnapping its director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, and other medical staff.
- In March, Israel blew up the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, destroying Gaza’s specialised cancer treatment facility as well as an adjacent medical school.
Explosion at UN building in Gaza caused by Israeli tank shells: Report
The damage caused by an explosion at a UN building in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah that killed a European staffer and wounded several last month was reportedly consistent with two Israeli tank rounds.
The Israeli-made, high-explosive, multipurpose M339 round was likely what had left the fragments found at the scene, The Washington Post reported after speaking with multiple international experts.
After the attack, the UN significantly downsized its presence in Gaza as the Israeli military continues to block all aid and attack the enclave.
The UN said Israel was behind the attack, but the Israeli army denied responsibility.
Israeli army continues to target Rafah
Our colleagues are reporting that Israeli forces have destroyed several residential buildings west of the southern Gaza city.
On Saturday, the Israeli army said it completed the construction of what it calls the Morag Corridor, which cuts off Rafah from the rest of Gaza, as Israel expanded its attacks on the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
