Palestinians survey the debris after an Israeli strike on the Al-Ahli hospital, also known as the Baptist Hospital or Ahli Arab, in Gaza City on April 13, 2025. (Credit: Omar Al-Qatta / AFP)
An Israeli airstrike severely damaged one of the few remaining operational hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with the Israeli army claiming to have targeted a Hamas “command center” operating within the facility. No casualties were reported in the strike on the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City (north), also known as the Baptist Hospital, which occurred just hours after Israel announced the expansion of its offensive in the Palestinian territory.
Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, triggered by an attack from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, tens of thousands of Gazans have sought refuge in hospitals, many of which have been damaged or put out of service. The strike on al-Ahli Hospital took place “just minutes after a warning from the army [Israel] calling for the evacuation of patients, the wounded, and their companions,” said the Palestinian Civil Defense.
“The bombing led to the destruction of the surgery building and the oxygen production station for intensive care units,” it added. The hospital ceased to function, said Mounir al-Barch, a spokesperson for the Hamas Ministry of Health, the movement that has held power in Gaza since 2007. According to AFP images, large chunks of concrete and twisted metal are scattered across the site, where men are searching the rubble.
The explosion left a large hole in the building, with its iron doors torn off their hinges. The pro-Iran Iraqi channel Aletejah TV reported that one of its satellite transmission vehicles was hit by the strike.
‘On the street’
“When we reached the hospital gate, they bombed it, and there was a huge explosion,” testified Naila Imad, a 42-year-old Palestinian displaced woman evacuated from the hospital. “My children and I are on the street. We have been displaced more than twenty times, we don’t know where to go. The hospital was our last resort,” she told AFP. The Al-Ahli complex “was being used by Hamas terrorists to plan and carry out attacks against Israeli civilians and troops,” the army said in a statement.
In Deir el-Balah (central Gaza), seven Palestinians, including six brothers, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a vehicle, according to the Civil Defense. Protected by international humanitarian law, hospitals have been repeatedly targeted by the Israeli army in the devastated and besieged Gaza Strip, which has been under Israeli siege for more than 18 months. In retaliation for the Oct. 7 attack, Israel vowed to destroy Hamas and launched a devastating offensive in the small territory, where around 2.4 million inhabitants live in what the UN describes as catastrophic conditions. After two months of ceasefire, Israel resumed its airstrikes on Gaza on March 18, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stating that increased military pressure was the only way to force Hamas to release hostages.
‘It was hell’
The Oct. 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 Israelis, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Of the 251 people taken hostage during the attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, and 34 have died, according to the military. The Gaza Ministry of Health announced on Sunday that at least 1,574 Palestinians have been killed since March 18. This brings the total number of deaths in Gaza since the start of the Israeli retaliation offensive on Oct. 7, 2023, to 50,944, according to the ministry.
The Israeli army accuses Hamas of using hospitals as command and control centers in tunnels dug beneath the buildings, a claim denied by the Islamist movement. “It was hell,” testified Khaled Dalloul, evacuated from al-Ahli Hospital with his uncle. “There is no place to be treated or sleep. It’s a collective death sentence.” Hamas condemned the attack as a “new war crime” committed by “a criminal entity that has violated all laws, rules, and humanitarian norms, under cover and with American complicity.” On Saturday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Katz announced the intensification of military operations and their expansion to “most of Gaza.”
An Israeli airstrike severely damaged one of the few remaining operational hospitals in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with the Israeli army claiming to have targeted a Hamas “command center” operating within the facility. No casualties were reported in the strike on the Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City (north), also known as the Baptist Hospital, which occurred just hours after Israel announced the expansion of its offensive in the Palestinian territory.Since the beginning of the war in Gaza, triggered by an attack from the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, tens of thousands of Gazans have sought refuge in hospitals, many of which have been damaged or put out of service. The strike on al-Ahli Hospital took place “just minutes after a warning from the army [Israel] calling for the evacuation...