A predawn Israeli strike on al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza Metropolis, the final main hospital offering essential healthcare in northern Gaza, has sparked condemnation in Palestine and internationally as Israel continues to assault healthcare services.
Israel on Sunday claimed it struck a Hamas command and management centre on the hospital, with out offering proof, whereas Hamas denied the allegations.
The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which runs al-Ahli Hospital, condemned the assault, saying it occurred on “Palm Sunday, the beginning of the Holy Week, essentially the most sacred week of the Christian 12 months.”
It mentioned the dual strikes demolished the hospital’s two-storey genetic laboratory and broken the pharmacy and the emergency division buildings.
The Increased Presidential Committee for Church Affairs in Palestine, which is affiliated with the Anglican Church, mentioned the assault constituted “a grave violation of non secular sanctity and basic ideas of worldwide humanitarian legislation”.
The top of the committee, Ramzi Khoury, asserted that the assault was a direct affront to Palestinian Christians and the worldwide Christian neighborhood.
Britain’s Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell mentioned in a press release on Sunday: “The Anglican-run Ahli Hospital in Gaza is a spot of therapeutic and take care of Palestinians dwelling by means of unimaginable struggling. In insufferable circumstances, its heroic docs and nurses have cared for civilians who’ve endured 18 months of devastating violence”.
“For the one Christian hospital in Gaza to be attacked on Palm Sunday is very appalling. I share within the grief of our Palestinian brothers and sisters within the Diocese of Jerusalem,” he mentioned.
Gaza’s Well being Ministry mentioned the bombing pressured the evacuation of sufferers and workers. “We name on worldwide establishments and related authorities to guard the well being sector in accordance with worldwide legal guidelines and agreements,” it mentioned in a press release.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) mentioned the “heinous aggression” was “a part of a scientific sequence of assaults concentrating on hospitals, faculties, shelters and tents for the displaced in Gaza, inside the context of a scientific warfare of extermination that violates all humanitarian and ethical requirements”.
PIJ blamed Israel for sowing panic amongst sufferers and workers by issuing a warning shortly earlier than the strike. “The worldwide silence on Gaza is forcing it to grow to be a graveyard for legislation and humanity,” it added.
Worldwide condemnation: ‘Assaults on well being care should cease’
Hospitals have particular safety beneath worldwide legislation. Israel has besieged and raided them however, some a number of occasions, and struck a number of ones whereas accusing Hamas of utilizing them as cowl for its fighters. Final month, Israel struck Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, the most important hospital in southern Gaza, killing two folks and inflicting a big hearth.
Director-Common of the World Well being Group (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus mentioned the hospital was out of service and a baby had died on account of the disruption of care.
The hospital was additionally pressured to maneuver 50 sufferers to different well being centres, however 40 essential sufferers couldn’t be moved, Tedros added.
“Assaults on well being care should cease,” the WHO chief wrote on X. “As soon as once more we repeat: sufferers, well being employees and hospitals have to be protected. The help blockade have to be lifted. Ceasefire.”
Al-Ahli hospital in #Gaza is out of service following this morning’s evacuation order and assault – @WHO has acquired an replace from the hospital’s director. A toddler died as a result of disruption of care.
The emergency room, laboratory, emergency room X-ray machines and the pharmacy…
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) April 13, 2025
British International Minister David Lammy mentioned Israel’s bombing of medical services had “comprehensively degraded entry to healthcare” within the enclave.
“Al-Ahli Hospital has been attacked repeatedly because the battle started. These deplorable assaults should finish. Diplomacy no more bloodshed is how we are going to obtain an enduring peace,” Lammy wrote on X.
Qatar mentioned the assault on the final functioning hospital in northern Gaza was a “horrific bloodbath and a heinous crime towards civilians” that constituted a grave violation of worldwide humanitarian legislation.
The International Ministry warned concerning the enlargement of the cycle of violence throughout the area and mentioned the worldwide neighborhood should assume its obligations in defending civilians.
Jordan additionally condemned the assault in addition to Israel’s systematic concentrating on of civilians in Gaza and the destruction of significant services that present important companies to its inhabitants.
Egypt, too, issued a press release, calling the assault a grave violation of worldwide humanitarian legislation and worldwide norms and interesting for the worldwide neighborhood’s intervention in halting the assaults.
German International Minister Annalena Baerbock questioned the modalities of the strike however stopped wanting condemning the assault. “The merciless Hamas terror have to be combated. However worldwide humanitarian legislation applies, with a particular obligation to guard civilian areas. How can a hospital be evacuated in lower than 20 minutes?” she requested in a put up on X.