‘Deliberate’ destruction of Turkish-Palestinian hospital has been condemned as being part of Israel’s ‘systematic state terrorism’.
Israel has blown up Gaza’s only specialised cancer treatment hospital, as well as an adjacent medical school, drawing condemnation for again targeting a medical facility, which is banned under international humanitarian law.
Friday’s explosion flattened central Gaza’s Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, which had already been severely damaged by Israeli air strikes since October 2023. Footage posted online showed a massive ball of fire and smoke rising from the location after the Israeli military carried out the demolition.
It came as Israel announced that it was expanding its operation in the so-called Netzarim Corridor near the hospital, and blocked all movement on Salah al-Din Street.
Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum, who is reporting from Gaza’s Deir el-Balah, said the destruction has left thousands of patients in the besieged territory with nowhere to go for cancer treatment, amid the resumption of the deadly Israeli military operation.
The third floor of the hospital was previously hit in an Israeli air strike on October 30, 2023. Fuel shortages forced the hospital to shut down on November 1, 2023, with the UN warning the lives of 70 patients were at risk. It later emerged that four patients died at the hospital due to a lack of medical care.
“The hospital was being used as a command centre by Israeli forces during their previous military assault in central and northern Gaza,” Al Jazeera’s Abu Azzoum said.
“It was blown up completely after having been rebuilt with a Turkish donation of $34m in 2017,” he added.
Israel later confirmed it destroyed the cancer hospital, claiming it was used by Hamas – without providing any evidence.
In a statement, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the “deliberate” destruction as “part of Israel’s policy aimed at rendering Gaza uninhabitable and forcibly displacing the Palestinian people.” “
We call on the international community to take concrete and deterrent measures against Israel’s unlawful attacks and systematic state terrorism,” the ministry added.
Gaza Ministry of Health also condemned Israel’s “criminal behaviour”, which it said is “in line with the systematic destruction of the health system and the completion of the episodes of genocide”.
The hospital was considered the largest cancer treatment facility in Gaza, and was the only hospital accredited to treat up to 30,000 cancer patients a year.
Source: Al-Jazeera
