Israel intensifies strikes across Gaza on Palm Sunday and hits a
hospital in the north
[April 14, 2025]
By WAFAA SHURAFA and SAMY MAGDY
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A wave of Israeli strikes across Gaza
on Sunday hit a hospital and other sites, killing at least 21 people,
including children, as Israel vowed to expand its security presence in
the small coastal strip.
The predawn strike on Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City was the latest of
several attacks on northern Gaza's last major hospital providing
critical health care.
Hospital director Dr. Fadel Naim said the emergency room, pharmacy and
surrounding buildings were severely damaged, affecting over 100 patients
and dozens of staff.
One patient, a girl, died during the evacuation following an Israeli
warning because staff were unable to provide urgent care, Gaza's Health
Ministry said. Israel said it struck a Hamas command and control center
at the hospital, without providing evidence. Hamas denied the
allegations.
Al-Ahli Hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which
condemned the attack, saying in a statement it happened on “Palm Sunday,
the start of the Holy Week, the most sacred week of the Christian year.”
Palm Sunday commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, and worshipers in
Gaza City marked it in a church whose gilded trim and intact walls were
a contrast to the widespread debris elsewhere.
Associated Press video showed the hospital’s caved-in roof surrounded by
rubble. The health ministry’s director general, Dr. Munir al-Boursh,
said patients had been carried outside in beds and slept in the streets.
“Nothing was left safe inside the hospital, or all over Gaza,” said
Mohammad Abu Nasser, an injured man who sat on his bed outdoors and
looked at the destruction.
The health ministry said the hospital was temporarily out of service and
patients were transferred to other hospitals in Gaza City. The aid group
Medical Aid for Palestinians called it the fifth attack on Al-Ahli since
the war began.
Hospitals have special protection under international law. Israel has
besieged and raided them, some several times, and struck multiple ones
while accusing Hamas of using them as cover for its fighters.
Last month Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the largest in
southern Gaza, killing two people and causing a large fire, the health
ministry said. The facility had been overwhelmed when Israel ended a
two-month ceasefire last month with a surprise wave of airstrikes.
Charity workers killed
Hours later Sunday, a strike on a car in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza
killed at least seven people including six brothers, according to staff
at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. The youngest
brother was 10.
Their father, Ibrahim Abu Mahadi, said his sons worked for a charity
that distributes food to Palestinians. "For what sin were they killed?”
he said.
AP reporters saw the mangled, bloodied car as relatives wept over the
bodies. Israel's military asserted that it killed the deputy head of a
Hamas sniper cell.
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Alaa Manoun, who is seven months pregnant, is rescued from her
family’s home after it was struck by an Israeli army attack that
killed at least seven people, including her mother, daughter, and
husband, in Jabalia al-Balad, Gaza City, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP
Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
An airstrike Sunday afternoon hit a house in the urban Jabaliya
refugee camp in northern Gaza, killing at least seven people
including two women, according to the Indonesian hospital.
A pregnant woman was rescued from the rubble. Alaa Manoun later wept
after learning her youngest daughter had died, along with her
husband and her mother. Two other daughters, ages 4 and 7, were
injured.
Manoun had a broken ankle but otherwise seemed OK, according to a
doctor. No scan was available, since the only machine in northern
Gaza was at Al-Ahli Hospital, now damaged.
“We don’t know whose body is this and whose body is that,” said a
neighbor, Abdallah Dardouna. “There is no resistance, there is no
Qassam, no Hamas, there is no one here. It’s only civilians here.”
Another strike in Deir al-Balah hit a municipal building and killed
at least three people, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. In
Khan Younis, a strike killed at least three people, according to
staff at Nasser Hospital.
Israel's military said in a statement it had struck over 90 militant
targets over the past 48 hours including command and control
centers, tunnels and weapons. The military also said it had
intercepted a projectile fired from Gaza.
The war started when Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people, mostly
civilians, during an Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel and
took 250 people captive. Many were eventually freed in ceasefire
deals.
Israeli authorities have vowed to pressure Hamas to release the
remaining 59 hostages, 24 believed to be alive, and accept new
ceasefire terms. It cut off all supplies to Gaza over a month ago.
More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s
retaliatory offensive, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which
does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its count
but says more than half of the dead have been women and children.
Missile reported from Yemen
Israel's military said a missile was launched from Yemen on Sunday
afternoon and the details were under review. Sirens sounded in
several parts of Israel and the occupied West Bank. There were no
reports of casualties or damage.
The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen continue to target Israel
in what they have called solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
___
Magdy reported from Cairo.
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