Israeli air strike destroys part of last fully functional hospital in Gaza City

An Israeli air strike has destroyed part of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital, the last fully functional hospital in Gaza City.

Witnesses said the strike destroyed the intensive care and surgery departments of the hospital.

Video posted online appeared to show huge flames and smoke rising after missiles hit a two-storey building. People, including some patients still in hospital beds, were filmed rushing away from the site.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it targeted the hospital because it contained a "command and control center used by Hamas". No casualties were reported, according to Gaza's civil emergency service.

However, one child who previously suffered a head injury died as a result of "the rushed evacuation process", according to a statement from the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which is affiliated to the hospital.

Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry said the building was "completely destroyed", leading to the "forced displacement of patients and hospital staff".

The IDF said it had taken steps "to mitigate harm to civilians or to the hospital compound, including issuing advanced warnings in the area of the terror infrastructure, the use of precise munitions, and aerial surveillance".

A local journalist, who was working at the hospital, said the IDF had phoned a doctor who was operating in the emergency department and asked them to evacuate the hospital immediately.

"All patients and displaced people must go out to a safe distance," the officer reportedly said.

"You have only 20 minutes to leave."

Footage on social media showed staff and patients leaving the building while it was still dark outside.

Dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, were also seen fleeing from a courtyard inside the hospital where they had been seeking shelter.

Al-Ahli - a small medical facility before the war - was the only fully functional hospital in Gaza City, following the destruction of Al-Shifa medical complex and hospitals in the northern part of the Strip.

In its statement, the Hamas-run government media office condemned the attack.

Israel "is committing a horrific crime by targeting Al-Ahli Hospital, which houses hundreds of patients and medical staff", it said.

In October 2023, an explosion at the same hospital killed hundreds of people.

Palestinian officials blamed an Israeli strike for the blast. Israel said the blast was caused by a failed rocket launch by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which denied responsibility.

The Israeli military launched a campaign to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented cross-border attack on 7 October 2023, in which about 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

More than 50,933 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

Of those, 1,563 have been killed since 18 March, when Israel restarted its offensive in the Gaza Strip, the ministry said.