Palestinian-Irish plastic surgeon Ahmed El Mokhallalati checks a Palestinian man wounded in an Israeli strike, at the European Hospital, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on January 31, 2024. (Photo by Reuters)
Khan Younis, February 11 (RHC)-- Three Palestinian patients have lost their lives at a hospital in the southern part of the Gaza Strip as Israeli authorities continue to block the passage of vital medical supplies to the besieged coastal territory, risking the lives of thousands of people there amid unrelenting ground and air offensives.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), reported on Sunday that the victims died at al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis city due to the ban on the entry of essential equipment and oxygen into the medical facility for nearly a week.
The PRCS stated that Israeli troops destroyed medical devices and equipment during their raid on the hospital the previous day.
The forces also assaulted the staff, subjecting them to beatings, abuse, and humiliation. Nine members of the medical and administrative staff, along with four wounded individuals and five patient companions, were subsequently arrested.
The society noted that Israeli soldiers “continue to block the entry of the necessary fuel for the hospital’s electricity generators, despite the fuel reserves being nearly depleted within the next two days.” It argued that “the Israeli measures threaten to halt the hospital’s operations amid the ongoing blockade, now in its twenty-first consecutive day, affecting patients, the injured, and medical and administrative staff alike.”
Rights groups say the Israeli military’s repeated attacks on medical facilities, doctors, nurses, medics and ambulances must be investigated for war crimes. They maintain that hospitals and other medical facilities are civilian objects that have special protections under international humanitarian law or the laws of war.
Meanwhile, a 19-year-old Palestinian teenager succumbed late on Saturday to injuries sustained from Israeli gunfire earlier in the day. Mohammed Ahmed Khudair was shot in the head by Israeli forces, while he was inside a vehicle near the village of Khirbet Laham, close to the separation wall northwest of al-Quds.
He was subsequently transported to the Palestinian Medical Complex in Ramallah for medical treatment. His condition worsened, leading to his tragic death later in the night.
Israel has ramped up its aggression in the West Bank since its genocidal war on Gaza began in early October. More than 350 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since October 7, when Israel waged the war on Gaza after the Palestinian resistance carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The Israeli aggression has so far killed at least 28,064 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 67,611 others in Gaza. The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
