Gaza paediatric hospitals encircled by Israeli tanks after brutal night of airstrikes
Posted by sashimi on November 10, 2023, 11:54 am
10 Nov 2023
Israeli tanks are laying siege to the Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr pediatric hospitals in Gaza after a violent night of airstrikes that saw Israeli jets hit multiple health facilities across the besieged coastal enclave.
According to officials in the children's hospitals, hundreds of civilians remain trapped inside as the tanks have been firing on different sections of the buildings.
With Al-Rantisi and Al-Nasr hospitals out of service, about 3,000 children are being deprived of oncology treatment and dialysis services. The two pediatric hospitals were also hit by Israeli airstrikes overnight on Thursday.
Dozens were killed overnight after Israeli jets hit several healthcare facilities across Gaza, including the Indonesia, Al-Aqwdah, and Al-Shifa hospitals.
"Not a second goes by without bombing close to the hospital. Many of the hospital's windows have been broken, and there is fear and anxiety amongst the medics and the patients and the displaced people," Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qudra told Al Jazeera on Friday about Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest in Gaza.
The bombing of Al-Shifa continued into Friday morning, with videos shared on social media showing the devastation caused by Israeli bombs on the outpatient department, where displaced people had been sleeping.
Local reports said that the Israeli air force also dropped a Hellfire R9X missile next to the journalist's tent outside Al-Shifa Hospital on Thursday night. The R9X is a US-made air-to-ground missile featuring a kinetic warhead with pop-out blades instead of explosives, meant to dismember those near the blast site.