The United Nations secretary general and aid agencies working in the besieged Gaza Strip have condemned an Israeli airstrike targeting a convoy of ambulances carrying wounded people in the north of the territory.
Gaza’s Health Ministry, al-Shifa Hospital’s director and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society confirmed that as many as 15 people were killed and 60 others injured on Saturday, when the regime targeted the five-vehicle ambulance convoy, hitting one of them, which was carrying casualties from Gaza City to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
The regime has claimed, without providing any evidence, that the ambulances were carrying Hamas’ fighters.
The Palestinian resistance movement has strongly rejected the allegation, while Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of al-Shifa Hospital, said the wounded people, who were being evacuated, had their names listed at Rafah for permission to enter Egypt.
Reacting to the atrocity, UN chief, Antonio Guterres, said in a post on X social media platform that he is “horrified by the reported attack in Gaza on an ambulance convoy.”
I am horrified by the reported attack in Gaza on an ambulance convoy outside Al Shifa hospital.
Now, for nearly one month, civilians in Gaza, including children & women, have been besieged, denied aid, killed & bombed out of their homes.
This must stop.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 4, 2023
He added, “Now, for nearly one month, civilians in Gaza, including children and women, have been besieged, denied aid, killed and bombed out of their homes.”
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) quoted one of its doctors working at al-Shifa hospital as saying, “We were standing inside the hospital gate when the ambulance was directly hit in front of us. There were bloody bodies everywhere.”
The World Health Organization, for its part, said it condemned the strike, which was described by the MSF as “horrendous,” and “a new low in an endless stream of unconscionable violence.”
Israel has been bombing Gaza since October 7, when the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movements launched Operation al-Aqsa Storm in the occupied territories in response to the Israeli regime’s intensified crimes against Palestinians.
The Israeli war on Gaza has so far killed at least 9,488 Palestinians, including nearly 3,900 children and 2,509 women. Over 24,160 Palestinians have also been wounded.
Asked about the Saturday incident, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva said, “We are heartbroken to see medical services in Gaza put in harm’s way.”
This is not the first time that the Israeli regime has targeted healthcare services during its brutal war on Gaza.
The most egregious of the attacks came on October 17, when at least 500 civilians were killed by Israeli airstrikes on al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in the central part of the Gaza Strip.
