Kenneth Glad
Hospitals are meant to be places where people heal and find shelter when everything else falls apart. For families living through conflict, the surgical ward is often the last safe haven left. Yet even behind hospital walls, the quiet of the night can shatter in an instant.
Shortly after midnight on Wednesday, an Israeli airstrike hit the surgery unit of Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, according to CNN. Fire and rubble filled the wrecked ward after the explosion ripped open the facility, Gaza Civil Defense spokesman Ezz Eddine Abu Sabha reported.
At least six people died, including 52-year-old Dr. Rizk Abu Shaira and a 13-year-old boy who was waiting for surgery. The attack also left 40 people injured, with two doctors fighting for their lives in critical condition, Palestinian officials told the news outlet.
Video from the scene captured two munitions inside the medical complex, though one failed to go off. Markings on the intact 250-pound weapon showed it was an American-built GBU-39/B bomb provided to Israel.
“I was asleep when suddenly I was covered with dust and glass,” elderly patient Atiya Abu Basir said. “I couldn’t walk because I just had surgery.”
A fragile truce
In a statement reported by CNN, the Israel Defense Forces said the strike targeted Muhammad Abu Ismail, the commander of Hamas’ Khan Younis Brigade, alongside “additional terrorists who were hiding inside the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis.”
The military accused him of planning attacks against Israeli troops and civilians, though it did not confirm whether he had died in the strike.
A US-backed truce took effect over a year ago, yet Israeli bombardments have continued almost every day across Gaza. United Nations data indicates more than 1,400 people have died since the agreement was signed, leaving the territory without a single fully working hospital.
“They say there is a ceasefire. Where is there a ceasefire? Since the ceasefire, there are more massacres,” said Maryam Abu Hatab, whose brother died in the strike.
Winter pressures mount
Downpours have also swamped tens of thousands of makeshift shelters housing nearly two million uprooted Palestinians, according to the United Nations.
Earlier this week, the US-led Board of Peace criticized Israel for an “insufficient” response to the flooding, urging officials to allow more drainage, sanitation, and winter supplies into Gaza.
Israeli authorities continue to ban the machinery required to haul away ruins and clear debris, even though they told CNN that more than 91,000 tents have reached Gaza before winter. Israel’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories stated:
“The reconstruction of Gaza can only begin after Hamas fully disarms.”
