“People of the world… where can the people of Gaza go? Tents flood, cliffs collapse onto children, and hospitals are bombed with people inside. There is no time for blankets—or tears—to dry.”
Four years into their ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip, the Israelis continue to bomb hospitals, killing doctors and patients with total impunity. They killed six Palestinians, including a senior doctor, a child, and other patients, and injured over two dozen people in a strike on Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis early on Thursday morning.
The deadly strike hit the second floor of al-Yasin building within the hospital complex, causing extensive damage to the intensive care and surgical departments, according to Gaza’s Civil Defence and hospital officials.
Dr. Rizq Abu Sha’ira, 52, a senior surgeon at the medical complex, was one of the six martyrs of the latest Israeli war crime.
The other five martyrs were Jihad Naeem Muhammad Abu Tilkh (13), Murad Tawfiq Mahmoud Abu Zarifa (45), Saif Ghazi Muslim Abu Hatab (28), Khaled Suleiman Ibrahim Abu Anza (53), and Muhammad Nafiz Musa Abu Awad (27).
The Israelis have attacked all 38 of Gaza’s hospitals several times over the past three years of their genocidal assault on the besieged enclave, putting about half of them out of service. Those still operating are doing so at drastically reduced capacity due to the relentless murder of medical professionals, the destruction of infrastructure, the lack of rebuilding, and an ongoing blockade that has seen stocks of life-saving medicines plummet by half.
The Jewish state has murdered more than 1,700 healthcare professionals and continues to incarcerate nearly a hundred others, including over a dozen senior doctors.
This is the seventh time that the Israelis have targeted the Nasser Medical Complex since the start of their war of extermination in October 2023.
The attack on the hospital comes at a time when medical infrastructure in the enclave is stretched to breaking point amid nonstop Israeli aggression, with overworked and traumatised staff struggling under the strain of personal losses and the immense emotional and physical toll of working in increasingly desperate conditions, with dwindling supplies, damaged facilities, and little respite from the horrors unfolding around them.
To make matters worse, Gaza is flooding after rain started pouring down on Friday night. Vast swathes of the enclave are submerged, and hundreds of thousands of genocide survivors have no dry place even to sleep.
On top of these unending hardships, which have been entirely and deliberately engineered by the genocidal Jewish state, the Israelis continue to bomb Palestinians and kill them on a daily basis.
They have killed at least 1,630 Palestinians and injured a further 5,878 since the start of the so-called ceasefire in October last year.
“Gaza had barely pulled its children from beneath the collapsed cliff and wrung the floodwater from its blankets when bombardment returned to strike patients in their beds and doctors saving lives,” Dr. Munir al-Bursh, the director-general of the Gaza Health Ministry, wrote on Twitter.
“Israeli forces struck the surgical building at Nasser Medical Complex, killing six people, including Dr. Rizq Abu Shua’ira, and injuring others. He wore his white coat to ease suffering. The hospital became the place of his death, leaving his family waiting for a return that would never come.
“People of the world… where can the people of Gaza go? Tents flood, cliffs collapse onto children, and hospitals are bombed with people inside. There is no time for blankets — or tears — to dry.
“Stop the attacks. Protect patients and healthcare workers. Let shelter supplies and medicines through. Hold those responsible accountable.
“Gaza does not ask the world to count its dead… It demands protection for those still alive.” — Palestine Will Be Free
