March
24, 2024
Israeli
troops advanced towards the Al-Nasser and Al-Amal hospitals in Gaza’s southern
city of Khan Yunis on 24 March, laying siege to both facilities as warplanes
continued to bombard the city. 
A
large force of troops and vehicles suddenly besieged the hospitals on Sunday.
“Dozens
of Israeli armored vehicles are currently surrounding Al-Amal Hospital,
engaging in extensive excavation work in its vicinity,” the Palestinian Red
Crescent Society (PRCS) said on Sunday.
PRCS
added that its teams were in extreme danger and were unable to move. They also
said they were unable to bury the body of one of their workers, Amir Abu Eisha,
who was killed by Israeli gunfire near the Al-Amal hospital courtyard on
Saturday evening.
Thousands
of displaced are sheltering in Al-Amal Hospital and other hospitals in Gaza.
PRCS reported head injuries to one of the displaced in the southern Gaza
hospital on Sunday. Drones with loudspeakers demanded all those present inside
to exit the hospital without their clothes, it said, adding that smoke bombs
are being launched at the hospital and that troops are sealing off the facility
with dirt mounds.
“Aerial
bombardment concentrated south and east of the Nasser Medical Complex, as well
as in neighboring Batn as-Samin area. Continuous artillery shelling
relentlessly struck these regions, complemented by gunfire from helicopters and
drones,” eyewitnesses told WAFA news agency, adding that several people have
been killed and injured.
Israel
continued heavy bombardment across Khan Yunis on 24 March following incessant
airstrikes on the city the day prior.
In
Rafah, where over 1.4 million displaced Palestinians are trapped, an Israeli
air strike on a house killed seven people, health officials said.
Both
Al-Amal and Al-Nasser hospitals were stormed by Israeli forces this year and in
late 2023, as part of a brutal campaign Israel has waged against Gaza’s medical
facilities since the start of the war.
The
attacks on Khan Yunis come as Al-Shifa Hospital, north of the strip in Gaza
City, has been under Israeli siege for a week.
"Occupation
forces raped women and then killed them, and killed and burnt entire families.
We haven't found food or water for 6 days. We appeal to the Red Cross to
provide water for the children and the sick. The occupation forced 65 families
to leave the area around the Complex. Occupation forces burned the building we
were barricaded in. We don’t even have water to break our fast, and we don’t
know where to go,” Jamila al-Hisi, a displaced woman inside Al-Shifa Hospital,
told Al-Jazeera on 23 March.
The
situation at the hospital is being described as catastrophic.
The
Israeli army released a collage of photos on Thursday listing several
“terrorists” belonging to Hamas, who it said were detained during Israel’s
second incursion into Al-Shifa Hospital that began on 18 March.
The
Israeli army later admitted to a “human error,” saying several of the photos
were of people who had not yet been caught. Hebrew media also confirmed that
some of the other photos “were added by mistake.”
The
initial attack on Al-Shifa Hospital on Monday resulted in the assassination of
Brigadier General Fayeq al-Mabhouh, Gaza’s police chief who was in charge of
aid distribution in the north of the strip.
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