No one was killed in the recent attack on the Ahli Arab Hospital, a crucial facility in Gaza's struggling health care system. However, a child receiving treatment for a head injury died due to the hurried evacuation ordered prior to the strike. The Israeli military targeted the hospital in northern Gaza early on Sunday morning, shortly after instructing patients and staff to evacuate.
The attack occurred just hours after the Israeli government announced an expansion of its military occupation in southern Gaza, effectively severing connections between two strategically significant Palestinian cities. The strike resulted in the destruction of a laboratory and damage to a pharmacy, the emergency department, and a church located within the hospital compound in Zeitoun.
The Ahli Arab Hospital has been one of the last remaining operational medical facilities in Gaza, where many hospitals have been damaged or rendered inoperative during the ongoing conflict that escalated following the Hamas-led attack on Israel in October 2023. According to the World Health Organization, 33 out of Gaza's 36 hospitals have been affected by the war, with only 21 remaining partially functional. The organization also warned of an impending medicine shortage due to a blockade on aid deliveries by Israel for the past six weeks.
The hospital compound had previously been targeted less than two weeks into the conflict, when a missile struck a parking lot where displaced families were sheltering. Initially, Hamas attributed the strike to Israel, while Israel claimed it was caused by a misfired rocket from Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a group allied with Hamas. U.S. intelligence later expressed high confidence in Israel's account of the incident.
The Israeli military took responsibility for the recent strike, asserting that the hospital was being used as a Hamas command center. Both the military and the Anglican Church stated that Israeli soldiers had contacted the hospital to order an evacuation before the attack. Neither the hospital authorities nor Hamas provided comments regarding the alleged use of the facility by Hamas fighters.
In a separate announcement, the Israeli defense minister revealed the capture of a key east-west thoroughfare in southern Gaza, which disrupts connections between the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis. This development marks an expansion of Israel's military occupation in the region.
The thoroughfare, referred to as the “Morag Corridor,” is named after a Jewish settlement that was dismantled following Israel's evacuation from Gaza in 2005. Defense Minister Israel Katz indicated that the area between the corridor and the Gaza-Egypt border, encompassing approximately 25 square miles, has been designated as part of “Israel’s security zone.” The military has encircled Rafah but has not yet established complete operational control over all neighborhoods.
Prior to resuming military operations against Hamas in March, Israeli forces controlled only a small area in southern Gaza along the borders with Egypt and Israel. However, they began to expand their control in early April, aiming to pressure Hamas into releasing around 60 hostages, some of whom are believed to be deceased, still held in the enclave.