DUBAI – At least 25,105 Palestinians have been killed and 62,681 injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since October 7, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Some 178 Palestinians were killed and 293 injured in the past 24 hours, the ministry added.
Israel has bombed every place in Gaza from hospitals to schools and from NGOs to journalists.
Dr Ahmed al-Moghrabi, the head of the plastic surgery and burns department at Khan Younis’ Nasser Hospital, told Al Jazeera the sound of Israeli bombing had been heard near the hospital.
“[I expect] the ambulances will bring patients from these explosions, as a result of the bombing,” said al-Moghrabi.
With fears growing that the Nasser Hospital will face an attack similar to the devastating Israeli attack on al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, thousands of displaced people who have sought shelter in the hospital and its grounds have fled. Al-Moghrabi is worried about what may come.
“If it happens, it will be a real horror,” he told Al Jazeera. “I pray to God that this will not happen… We are not a target. I know that Israel has already crossed all red lines… but this is the main hospital in the south of Gaza. I hope that this will not happen. If it happens, I cannot tell you how catastrophic it will be.”
Despite all the horror Palestinians have seen since October 7, Hamas defends its decision to carry out the cross-border attacks on the Israeli army on October 7.
The Hamas group has said the October 7 attacks that led to conflict with Israel were a “necessary step” but “chaos” had led to “faults” in the operation.
The attacks were “a necessary step and a normal response to confront all Israeli conspiracies against the Palestinian people”, the group said in its first public account about October 7, adding that “maybe some faults happened during Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’s implementation due to the rapid collapse of the Israeli security and military system, and the chaos caused along the border areas with Gaza”.
