Gaza: Israeli Snipers Kill 21 Civilians Outside Nasser Hospital

Israeli snipers have killed at least 21 Palestinians after they opened fire on displaced civilians trying to reach Nasser Hospital in Southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah,  said on Friday that snipers had surrounded the hospital and were “shooting at every moving object” as people were trying to reach it from two densely populated residential neighbourhoods near the facility.

“The area around the hospital is very dangerous, and it has turned into a combat zone,” he said, noting that the hospital is the only place right now in Khan Younis that has some water left.

Rights groups said the Israeli military’s repeated attacks on medical facilities, doctors, nurses, medics and ambulances must be investigated for war crimes.

“Hospitals and other medical facilities are civilian objects that have special protections under international humanitarian law or the laws of war,” Human Rights Watch noted.

Mahmoud said this represents a “new trend of targeted killings” by Israeli snipers, who shoot Palestinians in the streets. People inside the medical facility would also become easy targets by trying to retrieve the bodies.

“Attack drones also targeted a group of young people who gathered on the roof of the hospital. Because of the communications blackout, they were trying to get signals for the internet on their mobile phones so they could communicate with family members,” Mahmoud reported.

Along with al-Amal Hospital, Nasser Hospital is the largest in Khan Younis. Both medical facilities have been under siege for weeks as the Israeli army said it “encircled” the area and ramped up its offensive from air, land and sea.

Many Palestinians, who had been forcibly displaced by previous Israeli attacks in other areas, are now left with few options inside Nasser Hospital, along with limited medical staff and patients, all of whom have little to eat or drink.

The Israeli military has destroyed or heavily damaged dozens of medical facilities across the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on October 7.

ALJAZEERA