SEVEN people were killed by Israeli drone-fire on the Anglican Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City on Sunday, after damage and disruption involving local “outlaws”.
On Monday, the diocese of Jerusalem, which administers the hospital, released a statement outlining the course of events, which culminated in an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) drone opening fire on the compound. Seven people were killed, and another five were left severely injured. The injured were moved to a make-shift ward in the nearby Al-Shifa Hospital.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, men described in the statement as “armed members of a local outlaw band” entered the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital demanding treatment for a wounded member.
Medical staff “treated him promptly and with full respect, as they do with all their patients”, the diocesan statement said. But members of the group still set fire to the morgue and staff prayer room, and blocked firefighters from entering.
As the fire threatened to reach tents serving as a makeshift emergency department, staff and patients were evacuated, and, though calm was restored and the fire extinguished, parts of the building were left severely damaged as a result.
A second group of outlaws then “stormed into the hospital campus”, and started “shooting into the air and shouting wildly”, the diocesan statement said. This drew the attention of an IDF drone, which reportedly opened fire without staff being warned in advance.
There have been media reports that the IDF is arming organised criminal groups in Gaza that profess to be anti-Hamas. Such groups are reportedly looting the limited aid supplies that are entering the territory.
The diocesan statement condemned the attacks both by the outlaws and the IDF, and called on all parties to “cease from making this sacred place of healing into a battleground”. The IDF had a duty under the Geneva Convention to protect medical facilities, it said.
Local leaders had condemned the attacks, the statement said, and expressed solidarity with the diocese’s work. The statement concluded with an invitation to “Christians and all people of goodwill around the world to pray and advocate on behalf of the courageous staff of our hospital”.
The statement ended: “May God have mercy on us all.”
On social media, the Bishop of Chelmsford, Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, described the incident as “deeply shocking and disturbing news”.
The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Michael Jackson, also condemned “such an attack on a place of sanctuary for those who are ill and injured is an affront to human dignity for everyone who holds with the sacredness of life”.