Israeli strikes in Gaza killed two people and significantly damaged a hospital’s medical supply warehouses on Saturday, hospitals, the civil defence agency and the health ministry said.
The latest strikes come a day after Hamas said it had agreed to a deal to end the war with Israel that includes provisions for handing over its weapons and the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip.
Israel has yet to officially comment, but a political source has told AFP “that there will be no withdrawal whatsoever” without Hamas’s “genuine disarmament”.
On Saturday morning, Al-Shifa Hospital reported receiving one body and several injured people following an Israeli drone strike in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City.
When contacted by AFP, the Israeli military said it was was “aware of one strike in the area on a Hamas,” but that it was still checking the outcome.
In Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Al-Aqsa Hospital reported receiving one body and several injured following a separate Israeli drone strike.
In that incident, the Israeli military also said it had struck a Hamas military operative.
In the early hours of Saturday, Gaza’s civil defence agency reported “extensive damage” caused by an Israeli strike on a storage facility for medicines and medical supplies belonging to Al-Aqsa Hospital.
The Palestinian health ministry condemned “the heinous crime committed by Israeli occupation forces” which it said had “obliterated two of the four warehouses… and caused severe damage to the remaining two”.
It also said the strike had significantly damaged the adjacent outpatient clinic building.
“Vital quantities of medical consumables and supplies intended for the care of patients and the wounded were lost or destroyed,” it added.
AFP footage from the site showed a huge crater in the ground, next to which dozens of Palestinians sifted through what appeared to be medical supplies that had been scattered by the blast.
Jaber Abed, 33, said he and his family had fled their tent next to the hospital at dawn.
“I hope the war truly ends and that we can live like human beings,” he told AFP, but added he was not hopeful that Israel would implement the ceasefire agreement without pressure from US President Donald Trump.
Hamas political bureau member Bassem Naim told AFP on Saturday that “the ball is currently in the Israeli occupation’s court” and called on mediators to “pressure Israel to halt violations and breaches of the ceasefire”.
Despite a ceasefire declared in October between Israel and Hamas, Israeli fire continues to regularly target Palestinians.