Hamas official: Israeli strike destroys cardiology department at Gaza hospital

“The occupier (Israel) completely destroyed the cardiology department of al-Shifa hospital (…). The two-story building was completely destroyed in the airstrike,” Yousef Abu Rish, deputy health minister of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, told AFP.

Witnesses confirmed the strike, which the AFP could not independently verify.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

But it has previously denied that it deliberately targeted the hospital and has repeatedly accused Hamas of using medical facilities or the tunnels beneath them as command posts and hideouts. Hamas denies this accusation.

The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that soldiers “opened and secured a passage for civilians to evacuate on foot and in ambulances from al-Shifa, al-Rantisi and Nasser hospitals.”

An Israeli medical non-governmental organization, citing doctors at the hospital, reported on Saturday that two premature babies died after a power cut at the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip. As fighting continues around the hospital, its neonatal intensive care unit is out of service, putting another 37 babies at risk, Physicians for Human Rights Israel said.

Thousands of Palestinians who left their homes because of the fighting are sheltering in the hospital.

The militants of the Palestinian Islamist organization “Hamas” carried out unprecedented attacks on the territory of Israel on October 7; they killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 hostages, according to Israeli officials.

After these attacks, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

According to the Ministry of Health of the Palestinian territories controlled by Hamas, more than 11,000 people were killed in the enclave during Israeli retaliatory strikes. people, including mostly civilians.

Israel blames the high death toll on Hamas, which it says is using civilians as human shields. Hamas denies this.