Israel escalates attack—Bombs hospitals; kills over 100

Israel has launched a new wave of attack on Hamas—killing over 100 Palestinians. On Tuesday, Israel launched an airstrike on Southern Gaza’s Nasser Hospital and  European hospital situated at Khan Younis, resulting in the death of about 50 people. The death toll is still unclear due to unrecoverable bodies scattered around the hospital area. Medical officials say about 22 of them were children, reported The Guardian. 

The incident happened a day after Hamas released an Israeli-American hostage, a deal brokered by the US. Israeli warplanes simultaneously dropped six ‘bunker buster’ bombs designed to target underground structures like tunnel systems—without any warnings, hitting the European hospital’s inner courtyard and vicinity. 

The Israeli army deliberately targeted to dissuade rescue teams wanting to access the area with a second round of missiles, reports Al Jazeera.

On Wednesday, Israel bombed Northern Gaza’s Jabalia neighbourhood, killing about 50 people—22 children and 15 women among them. By Thursday, 143 Palestinians were killed in a single day in the wave of attacks. The attack was in response to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s launching of projectiles, despite Israel’s warning on Tuesday evening to evacuate Jabalia and neighbouring areas. 

Meanwhile, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed the Tuesday attack via a post on X, terming it a ‘precise’ operation “on Hamas terrorists in a command and control center, located in an underground terrorist infrastructure site beneath the European hospital in Khan Younis”. 

Reportedly, the target of that attack was Mohammed Sinwar—the younger brother of Yahya Sinwar, the former Hamas leader. After Yahya’s death last October, Mohammed is believed to have taken over Hamas’s military operations.

Prior to this, the IDF confirmed an attack on Nasser Hospital as its ‘targeted attack on key terrorists’, which involved the death of a Palestinian photojournalist, Hassan Aslih who was being treated in the hospital for a month from a previous Israeli strike back in April. The Israeli military posted on X stating Aslih as a terrorist in the guise of a journalist with involvement in the 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Following the attack and subsequent retaliations by Israel—which have drawn widespread international criticism for their scale and intensity—several ceasefires have happened. However, neither proved lasting.

A recent one happened on 19th January mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Israel however has since been continuing its attack on Gaza, in breach of the agreement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is in no mood for ceasing the attacks, has also threatened an all-out military assault in the near future.

The recent bombing of hospitals in Gaza comes after Israel’s series of hospital targeting. In Dec 2024, the UN Human Rights Office released a report stating Israel’s “attacks on hospitals and operations within and in the vicinity of hospitals, leading to sustained combat in and around many hospitals, a pattern which has led to the destruction of most hospitals in Gaza, pushing the healthcare system to the point of almost complete collapse.”

In March this year, Israeli forces killed 15 Gaza paramedics—eight Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) workers, six members of the Gaza civil defence and one employee from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees—whose bodies were discovered a week later buried in Southern Gaza. An Israeli inquiry into the IDF’S killing later pointed to “operational misunderstanding” and a “breach of orders” behind the incident although other accounts and evidence says otherwise. 

The death toll in Gaza has now exceeded over 62,000 in 20 months since the war began—which had reached 61,709, including 17,492 children by April 17 this year.