Israeli forces push deeper into Gaza and destroy its only cancer
hospital
[March 22, 2025]
By IBRAHIM HAZBOUN, SAM MEDNICK and DAVID RISING
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli forces advanced deeper into the Gaza Strip on
Friday and blew up the only specialized cancer hospital in the war-torn
territory, as Israeli leaders vowed to capture more land until Hamas
releases its remaining hostages.
The hospital was located in the Netzarim Corridor, which splits Gaza in
two and was controlled by Israeli troops for most of the 17-month-long
war. Israel moved to retake the corridor this week shortly after
breaking the ceasefire with Hamas. The truce delivered relative calm to
Gaza since late January and facilitated the release of more than two
dozen hostages.
The Israeli military said it struck the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship
Hospital, which was inaccessible to doctors and patients during the war,
because Hamas militants were operating in the site. Turkey, which helped
build and fund the hospital, said Israeli troops at one point used it as
a base.
Dr. Zaki Al-Zaqzouq, head of the hospital’s oncology department, said a
medical team visited the facility during the ceasefire and found that,
while it had suffered damage, some facilities remained in good
condition.
“I cannot fathom what could be gained from bombing a hospital that
served as a lifeline for so many patients,” he said in a statement
issued by the aid group Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned the hospital's destruction and
accused Israel of deliberately “rendering Gaza uninhabitable and
forcibly displacing the Palestinian people.”
Hospitals can lose their protected status under international law if
they are used for military purposes, but any operations against them
must be proportional. Human rights groups and U.N.-backed experts have
accused Israel of systematically destroying Gaza’s health care system.
Israel warns it will escalate military operations
Israel’s renewed military offensive in the Gaza Strip threatens to be
even deadlier and more destructive than the last, as it pursues wider
aims with far fewer constraints.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday that his country would carry
out operations in Gaza “with increasing intensity" until Hamas frees the
59 hostages it holds — 24 of whom are believed alive.
“The more Hamas continues its refusal to release the kidnapped, the more
territory it will lose to Israel,” Katz said.
The Israeli military said Friday its forces were planning fresh assaults
into three neighborhoods west of Gaza City, and issued warnings on
social media for Palestinians to evacuate the areas.
The warnings came shortly after the military said it intercepted two
rockets fired from northern Gaza that set off sirens in the Israeli
coastal city of Ashkelon. Hamas had also fired three rockets the
previous day in its first attack since Israel ended the ceasefire.
A long-range missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels set off air raid
sirens over Jerusalem and central Israel for the fourth day in a row
Friday, with the military saying it was intercepted.
Israeli forces advance in Gaza's north and south
Israeli troops had moved Thursday toward the northern town of Beit
Lahiya and the southern border city of Rafah, and resumed blocking
Palestinians from entering northern Gaza, including Gaza City.
Displaced Palestinians fled northern Gaza along a coastal road Friday
carrying their belongings, firewood and other items on horse-drawn
carts.
A strike east of Gaza City on Friday killed a couple and their two
children, plus two additional children who weren’t related to them,
according to witnesses and a local hospital. The Israeli army said it
struck a militant in a Gaza City building and took steps to minimize
civilian harm. It was not immediately clear if the army was referring to
the same strike.
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Israelis attend a rally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's
plan to dismiss the head of the Shin Bet internal security service,
and calling for the release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza
Strip, outside the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem on
Thursday, March 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
And in the southern city of Rafah, Palestinian municipal officials said
Israeli bombardments forced residents to move outdoors in rainy weather,
deepening their suffering.
Court delays Netanyahu’s firing of Israeli security official
In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's push to fire the
country’s domestic security chief has deepened a power struggle focused
largely over who bears responsibility for the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack
that sparked the war in Gaza. It also could set the stage for a crisis
over the country’s division of powers.
Hours after Netanyahu's Cabinet unanimously approved the firing Ronen
Bar, head of the Shin Bet security service, the Supreme Court ordered a
temporary halt to his dismissal until an appeal can be heard no later
than April 8. Netanyahu’s office had said Bar’s dismissal was effective
April 10, but that it could come earlier.
Israel’s attorney general has ruled that the Cabinet has no legal basis
to dismiss Bar. However, Netanyahu sounded defiant in a social media
post Friday evening, saying: “The State of Israel is a state of law and
according to the law, the Israeli government decides who will be the
head of the Shin Bet.”
Critics say the move is a power grab by the prime minister against an
independent-minded civil servant, and tens of thousands of Israelis have
demonstrated in support of Bar, including outside Netanyahu’s residence
on Friday.
Netanyahu has resisted calls for an official state commission of inquiry
into the attack and has tried to blame the failures on the army and
security agencies.
Hundreds killed in Gaza since ceasefire collapsed
Around 600 Palestinians have been killed since Israel relaunched the war
with a wave of predawn airstrikes across Gaza on Tuesday, which came as
many families slept or prepared to start the daily fast for the holy
month of Ramadan.
Israel had already cut off the supply of food, fuel and humanitarian aid
to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, aiming to pressure Hamas over
the ceasefire negotiations.
The attack by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023, killed some 1,200
people and took 251 hostages. Most of the hostages have been freed in
ceasefire agreements or other deals. Israeli forces have rescued eight
living hostages and recovered the bodies of dozens more.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 49,000 Palestinians,
according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were
militants, but says more than half of those killed were women and
children. Israel says it has killed around 20,000 militants, without
providing evidence.
___
Rising reported from Bangkok; Mednick reported from Tel Aviv.
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