14 October 2024 Al-Aqsa Hospital attack

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14 October 2024 Al-Aqsa Hospital attack
Part of the Israel–Hamas war
Israel outline northwest negev.png
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Deir el-Balah
Location Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip
Coordinates 31°25′11.89″N34°21′36″E / 31.4199694°N 34.36000°E / 31.4199694; 34.36000
Date14 October 2024
~1:00 (UTC+02:00)
Target Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital
Attack type
Airstrike, massacre, death by burning
Deaths6+ Palestinians [1] [2] [3]
Injured70+ Palestinians [4] [1]
PerpetratorFlag of the Israel Defense Forces.svg  Israel Defense Forces

On 14 October 2024, the Israeli Air Force struck tents within the grounds of the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip. As of 14 October 2024, at least 5 people were confirmed killed in the attack and at least 70 were injured after a major fire broke out in nearby tents. [2] [5] [1] The death toll was expected to increase due to the large number of victims with severe burns. [6] 25 people were transferred to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. [7] It was the seventh attack on the hospital since March 2024. [2] [8] Following the spread of videos showing people burning alive in nearby tents, the White House expressed its concerns to Israel. [9] [10]

Contents

Around one million displaced people are estimated to be sheltering in Deir el-Balah, which is supposedly considered to be part of Israel's "humanitarian zone" in the Gaza Strip. [11] [12]

Airstrike

At approximately 1 AM on 14 October 2024, the Israeli Air Force launched an airstrike on a tent camp housing displaced people on the grounds of the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip. [13] [14] The strike hit while emergency services were receiving injured people from the Israeli bombardment of the al-Mufti school in Nuseirat hours before, which killed 22 and injured 80 people. [2] [15] [16] [17] According to a Doctors Without Borders coordinator on site, the fire destroyed structures sheltering 37 families. [18] The strike caused families' cooking gas cylinders to explode, further fueling the fire. [18] [13] Four munitions experts reviewing videos of the blaze added that some of the secondary explosions were probably caused by small-arms ammunition but cautioned it was difficult to determine the exact balance without access to the site. [18] Footage showed tents on fire while people tried to extinguish the flames. [16] [19] [20]

Israel claimed to have targeted a Hamas command center embedded in the car park, without providing evidence. Doctors without Borders (MSF), which has staff working in Al-Aqsa Hospital, reported that "it had no knowledge" of a Hamas command center and that "the hospital functions as a hospital". [21]

Victims

Al-Aqsa Hospital fire
External video
Nuvola apps kaboodle.svg (GRAPHIC) Video of fire after Israeli attack, Sha'ban al-Dalou visible. [22] [23]

The head of the hospital's emergency department said many of the injured were women and children. [18] Hospital staff said while the hospital itself was not damaged in the strike, they had to treat patients on the floor for lack of beds. [18] Most of the injured had second and third degree burns; some also had shrapnel wounds requiring critical care. [18] Most of the survivors would eventually die from their "massive and deep" burns, a medical worker said. [18]

Widely shared videos of the blaze, verified by NBC, [24] showed at least one person lying on a bed connected to an IV drip, [25] [26] burning alive, with onlookers unable to reach and save him. [18] [27] [28] [29] [30] The victim, identified as Sha'ban al-Dalou, was a 19-year-old software engineering student at Al-Azhar University who was injured at the IDF's bombing of the Shuhada al-Aqsa mosque a week prior. [23] [31] [32] [33] Al-Dalou's mother was also killed in the fire. [34] [35] [36] His father suffered severe burns while pulling two of the family's children out of the flames. [33] [37] Sha'ban's 11-year-old brother, Abdul Rahman al-Dalou, also died from his burns on 17 October. [3] Ahmed Al-Dalou, Sha'ban's and Abdul's father stated, "I cannot forget the smell of their burning bodies. It is stuck in my nose and mind. Every time I close my eyes, I see my wife and son burning." [12]

Responses

Domestic

International

Other

Following the spread on social media of a video of Sha'ban al-Dalou burning to death during the attack, several pro-Israel accounts spread the false Pallywood conspiracy theory that the video had been staged. [48] [49] More broadly, however, images of al-Dalou's death sparked outrage and added to growing concerns about Israel's conduct in Gaza. [50] An independent journalist who filmed the bombing stated, "I saw people burning in front of me. By god, no one could do anything. The man, the woman and the little girl burning in front of me". [51]

See also

Related Research Articles

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Events in the year 2004 in the Palestinian territories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israel–Hamas war</span> Ongoing armed conflict in the Middle East

An armed conflict between Israel and Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups has been taking place in the Gaza Strip and Israel since 7 October 2023. It is the fifth war of the Gaza–Israel conflict since 2008, and the most significant military engagement in the region since the Yom Kippur War in 1973. It is the deadliest war for Palestinians in the history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attacks on health facilities during the Israel–Hamas war</span>

A significant number of attacks on healthcare facilities occurred during the Israel–Hamas war. During the first week of the war, there were 94 attacks on health care facilities in Israel and Gaza, killing 29 healthcare workers and injuring 24. The attacks on healthcare facilities contributed to a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza. By 30 November, the World Health Organization documented 427 attacks on healthcare in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, resulting in 566 fatalities and 758 injuries. By February 2024, it was reported that "every hospital in Gaza is either damaged, destroyed, or out of service due to lack of fuel." By April, WHO had verified 906 attacks on healthcare in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and Lebanon.As of June 2024, according to WHO, Israel has attacked 464 health care facilities, killed 727 health care workers, injured 933 health care workers, and damaged or destroyed 113 ambulances

Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital is a hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, Palestine.

Events in the year 2024 in Palestine.

The following is a list of events during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in 2024, including the events of the Israel–Hamas war.

On 8 June 2024, the Israeli military killed at least 276 people and injured over 698, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian health officials, during a hostage rescue operation in the UNRWA Nuseirat refugee camp. The operation's objective was to free multiple hostages taken during the 7 October attack on Israel. The Israeli military acknowledged fewer than 100 Palestinian deaths.

The Khadija School airstrike by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) occurred on 26 July 2024 during the Israel–Hamas war in the central region of Gaza, specifically in Deir al-Balah. The airstrike killed at least 30 individuals, including seven minors. The Gaza Health Ministry run by Hamas reported an additional 100 casualties. The victims, who had sought shelter at the school, were transported to Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital for medical attention.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Killing of Shaban al-Dalou</span> 2024 incident in Israel-Hamas War

Shaban al-Dalou was a 19-year-old Palestinian man from the Gaza Strip who was killed during the bombing of Al-Aqsa hospital by the Israel Defense Forces on October 13, 2024. The area had been designated as a safe zone and as a result was densely populated with patients as well as refugees who had set up camps around the hospital. Israeli officials said they believed the tents around the hospital were probably ignited by secondary explosions.

References

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