At least six people have lost their lives and another 20 have been injured in the early hours of this Thursday following a bombardment carried out by the Israeli Army against the Nasser Medical Complex, located in the city of Jan Yunis, in the south of the Gaza Strip.
According to data provided by the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the air strike directly hit the surgery department located on the second floor of the Yassin building of the hospital complex, causing the deaths of six citizens and injuring several patients, members of the health personnel and accompanying persons who were inside.
Among the fatalities are a 13-year-old minor and a 52-year-old doctor, according to the list released by the health personnel of the center itself after the offensive.
The Ministry of Health of Gaza has denounced what happened, describing the bombardment as a “crime” and a “flagrant violation of the laws and international conventions” that guarantee the protection of medical centers.
The agency has warned that repeated attacks on hospitals “aggravate the suffering of sick people and the injured and threaten what remains of the sector’s healthcare capacity” in a context of “catastrophic” conditions in the enclave. For that reason, it has called for the urgent intervention of the international community and of the United Nations to demand accountability.
The Israeli Army says it targeted senior Hamas officials
Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the domestic Intelligence service (Shin Bet) have acknowledged responsibility for the bombardment of the medical complex and have stated that the operation was aimed at “a senior terrorist commander and other militants” of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamás) who, according to their account, were hiding in the facilities.
In a joint statement, the Army and the Shin Bet have stated that Hamas members “were promoting terrorist plots against citizens of the State of Israel and Israeli troops” from inside the hospital, which they accuse of having been turned into a “headquarters for military activities”.
According to the account of the Israeli authorities, this use of the medical complex constitutes "a flagrant violation of International Law and a cynical exploitation of civilian infrastructure", and they have specified that the Palestinian group used the facility to store weapons, manage command and control rooms, install observation posts, and carry out interrogations and torture through its internal security apparatus.
In addition, the IDF have stressed that "before and during the attack, measures were adopted to reduce the possibility of causing harm to civilians, including the use of precision weapons and aerial surveillance".