Israeli strikes on Gaza left a huge crater at a hospital less than 48 hours after US President Donald Trump announced Hamas and Israel had agreed to advance a ceasefire plan, local authorities said.
Gaza’s health ministry said the attack destroyed vital medical supplies.
“When medicines are bombed … illness becomes a weapon of war,” Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the ministry’s director general, said in a statement.
The strike demolished two medical warehouses at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and damaged two others, the health ministry said. The director general added a nearby displacement camp was leveled and civilian tents suffered extensive damage.
CNN has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for comment.
Footage from the scene shows people sifting through the large cavity, attempting to salvage medical supplies like IV fluids, breathing tubes, surgical masks and cotton balls buried amid the debris.
“Destroying a medical warehouse while Gaza’s health system is already suffering from a 51 percent shortage of essential medicines … is a direct assault on one of the last remaining lifelines of healthcare,” Bursh said.
In the past two days, eight civilians have been killed while a further 76 have sustained injuries, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said on Saturday. More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since the announcement of the ceasefire agreement in October last year.
For context: The latest strikes come shortly after Trump announced Thursday evening that Hamas had agreed to “completely disarm” along with an Israeli troop withdrawal. While the move marked progress in the long-stagnant roadmap to peace initiated by Trump’s Board of Peace last year substantial issues need to be resolved first.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is yet to comment on Trump’s announcement but an Israeli official told CNN Israel would not withdraw from Gaza without Hamas disarming first.
