Palestinian rights advocates accuse the Israeli military of pushing to completely destroy the medical system in Gaza.
Palestinian medics and rights advocates have denounced the killing of a top medical official in Gaza by the Israeli military, accusing Israel of systematically targeting the health system in the besieged enclave.
Israel bombed a clinic in Gaza City late on Sunday, killing Hani al-Jaafarawi, Gaza’s director of ambulances and emergency, and four other people.
The targeted clinic, which offered general health, paediatric and dental services, was also put out of commission by the Israeli attack.
“The Israeli war jets bombed the clinic and destroyed its rooms completely,” said media Arabic correspondent Ismail Algoul, reporting from Gaza City.
“The blood of the people who were targeted is still on the floor, while now, thousands of patients are in danger after the clinic lost all of its facilities as a result of the Israeli raid.”
Eyad Zaqout, director of the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, told media on Monday that by killing al-Jaafarawi, Israel removed “a pillar” from the territory’s collapsing health system.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health also eulogised al-Jaafarawi as a role model in his dedication and commitment to medical duty as well as to helping sick and wounded Palestinians despite the enormous challenges posed by the Israeli offensive.
“The Health Ministry renews its demands for the international community and global organisations to end the heinous Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip and protect the health system and its workers,” the ministry said in a statement.
It said that 500 health workers have been killed by Israel and 310 others have been detained since the start of the war on Gaza in October.
The Israeli military said on Monday that its attack was on a “Hamas weapons production headquarters” and killed a top Hamas official responsible for developing the group’s fighting capabilities.
For its part, the United States said the conflicting reports around the attack make it “very hard to get at the bottom-line truth”.
Missing children
“Obviously, militants should not hide behind civilians – that’s been the case from the beginning. And Israel needs to take all precautions to minimise civilian harm,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.
Save the Children said on Monday that an estimated 21,000 children are unaccounted for in Gaza.
“It is almost impossible to collect and verify information under the current conditions in Gaza, but at least 17,000 children are believed to be unaccompanied and separated and approximately 4,000 children are likely missing under the rubble, with an unknown number also in mass graves,” the charity said in a statement on Monday.
“Others have been forcibly ‘disappeared’, including an unknown number detained and transferred out of Gaza, their whereabouts unknown to their families amidst reports of ill-treatment and torture.”
At least seven Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis while awaiting much-needed aid on Monday, health officials said.
The Palestinian Civil Defence said it retrieved the bodies of five Palestinians, including three children and one woman, after an Israeli attack in central Gaza.
Israel has also been advancing deeper in Rafah in southern Gaza, where Israeli army chief Herzi Halevi said the military was close to “finishing off” Hamas.
“We have tremendous achievements in the battle for Rafah… this can be seen by the number of killed terrorists, the volume of destroyed infrastructure, the [destroyed] tunnels, and the advance in underground warfare, which is very complex,” said Halevi, according to the Jerusalem Post newspaper.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said on Sunday that the “intense phase of the fighting against Hamas is about to end”.
Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel 14 that Israel would be open to a “partial” truce with Hamas to secure the release of Israelis held by the group but would not agree to end the war.
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