A Day of War against Gaza Hospitals - Al-Shifa Chief

On Friday, Israeli tanks approached at least four hospitals  in northern Gaza from all directions, the Palestinian Health Ministry reported. 

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Amid escalating attacks by Israeli occupation forces in their advance on the besieged enclave, Gaza's largest medical complex, Al-Shifa, is facing total collapse.

"This day was a day of war on hospitals," said the head of Al-Shifa Hospital, Muhammad Abu Salmiya in statements to the press. Salmiya voiced great concern, as "the sick and injured occupy all the corridors of the hospital, and we are unable to perform surgery." 

Throughout the day, hospitals sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza have been hit directly and several casualties among patients have been reported.

The Al-Shifa director said there is "not a single bed to place the victims in," while "we are making difficult decisions between who to save and who to let die...as I speak to you I am standing in front of 100 dead bodies," Salmiya said. 

According to Al Jazeera news agency, the Israeli military has closed a perimeter of about 100 meters around three hospitals in Gaza City and the Indonesian Hospital in the north, using tanks and armored vehicles.

Israel had ordered the evacuation of the facilities however, the correspondent Hani Mahmoud reported from Khan Younis that people inside Al-Rantisi Hospital and Nasser Hospital are afraid to flee the area as there is no guarantee of a safe passage. 

The route from these hospitals to east of Salah al-Din Street in Gaza City "is very dangerous and has suffered repeated airstrikes," Mahmoud said. 

Early Friday, Israel struck the courtyard and obstetrics department of Al-Shifa hospital, killing at least 13 people and injuring several others, spokesman for the Gaza Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qudra said.

According to the spokesman, the hospital buildings were shelled five times by the Zionist regime since Thursday night. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry also reported another attack near the Al-Nasr Medical Center, which includes two children's hospitals, in which two people were killed.

Twenty-one hospitals out of a total of 35 in Gaza are currently out of service due to heavy airstrikes, but also due to a lack of fuel, the Palestinian ministry said in a statement released today.

It also noted that the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks since October 7 has risen to 11,208 in Gaza and the West Bank, with those injured exceeding 28,500.