GAZA: Heavy fighting erupted around a hospital in northern Gaza as Israel pressed on with its offensive against Hamas militants.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said at least 12 people were killed when a shell hit the second floor of the Indonesian Hospital.
Israel’s military says troops outside the hospital fired back at fighters within the facility but added that no shells were fired toward the hospital.
Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi condemned the attack and blamed Israel.
“Indonesia strongly condemns the Israeli attack on the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza that killed a number of civilians,” she said in a statement.
“The attack is a clear violation of international humanitarian law. All countries, especially those with close ties to Israel, must use all their influence and capabilities, to urge Israel to stop its atrocities.”
About 600 patients, 200 health care workers and 2,000 displaced people from the Indonesian Hospital are now sheltering in southern Gaza, Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf al-Qidra said.
“The [Israeli] occupation aims to evacuate the hospital, as it did in Shifa” in Gaza City, he said.
Some relief for Gaza’s collapsing health system arrived Monday. Dozens of trucks entered the territory from Egypt with equipment from Jordan to set up a field hospital.
Jordan’s state-run media said the new facility in the southern town of Khan Younis would be operating within 48 hours.
In addition, Israel says it is starting to allow about 70,000 liters of fuel each day into Gaza from Egypt, although the allocation would be far short of the minimum requirements for essential humanitarian operations. But it will help support food distribution and the operation of generators at hospitals, water and sanitation facilities, shelters, and other critical services.
Meanwhile, 28 premature babies evacuated from Shifa on Sunday have arrived in Egypt, Egyptian-state media reported, while the World Health Organization said three others have been reunited with their families in southern Gaza.
Israel published video Sunday of what it described as a tunnel dug by Hamas militants under Shifa Hospital, a focus of its search-and-destroy missions against Hamas militants.
Israeli engineers uncovered the tunnel 10 meters deep and running 55 meters to a blast-proof door.
(VOA)
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