By Nadine Osman

London, (The Muslim News):  UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “horrified” by the Israeli strike on a five-ambulance convoy, including one belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

The strike about 6.5 feet from the entrance to Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Friday, which killed 15 people and wounded 60 others, has spurred concerns for health workers’ safety.

Another ambulance, belonging to the health ministry, was “directly targeted” by a missile around 0.6 miles from the hospital, causing injuries and damage, the PRCS said.

The ministry said the ambulances were carrying several wounded people for treatment in Egypt.

“We had notified the International Committee of the Red Cross, the Arab Republic of Egypt, and the entire world through communication channels of the movement of ambulances carrying the injured to Egypt, but the occupation forces committed the crime with utmost brazenness,” the ministry added.

According to Al-Aqsa TV, the Israeli army also targeted the entrance of Al-Nasr Children’s Hospital in western Gaza City, killing 5 injuring dozens the channel said on Telegram.

Since a shock Hamas attack on October 7, which Israeli officials say has killed 1,400 people, Israel has bombarded the besieged Gaza Strip, where some hospitals have been damaged and faced severe shortages of fuel and supplies.

Multiple bodies beside the damaged ambulance were photographed outside the hospital.

Hamas denied Israel’s claims that fighters had been inside the vehicles, which it said were hit by Israeli forces while transporting wounded people from Gaza City towards the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, the convoy of five ambulances left Al-Shifa hospital shortly after 4:00 p.m. local time and headed south.

The convoy, consisting of four ambulances and one belonging to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, had to turn back after hitting a stretch of road “blocked by large quantities of rubble and rocks” due to shelling, the statement said.

As the ambulances headed back towards the hospital, a first “missile” strike hit the health ministry ambulance, damaging the vehicle, and injuring the people inside, according to the PRCS.

A second deadly strike hit the PRCS ambulance, carrying a wounded woman, as it approached Al-Shifa’s gates, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

It said, “the deliberate targeting of medical teams constitutes a grave violation of the Geneva Conventions, a war crime.”

Some 16 hospitals across Gaza are no longer functioning because of damage from strikes and a lack of fuel, according to the Health Ministry.

World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was “utterly shocked” by reports of attacks on ambulances evacuating patients.
Al-Shifa hospital, Gaza’s largest, has a bed occupancy rate of 164 percent, according to the WHO, which on Wednesday warned a shortage of fuel for generators “immediately risks the lives” of patients.

In a statement on the incident, Israel’s military gave no evidence to support its assertion that the ambulance was linked to Hamas but said it intended to release additional information.

Guardian analysis of satellite imagery of the northern Gaza Strip in the aftermath of heavy bombardments has identified more than 1,000 craters visible from space within approximately 10 square kilometres.

In one area, just half a kilometre wide, a group of residential blocks has been bombed so severely that about 100 craters, some as large as 45 feet, are visible.

The Israeli army said Thursday it had carried out more than 12,000 airstrikes against thousands of military targets in the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7.

At least one hospital and three schools in the area have been rendered out of service, due to a nearby bombing.

The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported: “The Israeli occupation forces committed a new massacre by bombing the Osama Bin Zaid School affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which shelters thousands of displaced people in the Al- Saftawi area in the northern Gaza Strip, resulting in dozens killed and wounded.”

Quoting local sources, the agency said thousands of displaced people were inside the school when it was bombed.

According to Health Ministry, 9,488 Palestinians have been killed, incl 3,900 children, 32,000 injured by indiscriminate bombing by Israeli air strikes in Gaza Strip. According to the Israeli army 1,405 Israelis have been killed incl 338 soldiers by Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing and Islamic Jihad in Israel.

[Photo: Injured Palestinians, including children, attacked by Israeli air force, taken to Al-Shifa Hospital in Nasirat Refugee Camp in Gaza City, Gaza on 3 11 23. Photojournalist Doaa Albaz /AA]