▲ Satellite image of Al-Sifa Hospital, the largest medical institution in the Gaza Strip
Israeli forces have seized control of an al-Sifa hospital in the west of the Gaza Strip and have been laying siege to an Indonesian hospital in the north of the country since an airstrike on the 20th (local time).
According to foreign media such as AP and AFP, the Hamas-run Gaza Strip's Ministry of Health claimed that dozens of tanks and armored vehicles had been deployed around Indonesian hospitals and were shooting at them.
Earlier, the Hamas-run Gaza Strip's health ministry said 2 people, including patients and medical staff, had been killed when a shell fell on the second floor of an Indonesian hospital.
Marwan Abdallah, a medical worker at an Indonesian hospital, told the AP that dozens of people were killed and injured in the airstrikes and shelling that continued throughout the night.
He said Israeli tanks were operating less than 12 meters from the hospital, and Israeli snipers could be seen on the rooftops of nearby buildings.
The AP reported that even during a phone conversation with him, gunfire could be heard behind his voice.
Footage shared by the Palestinian Authority's (PA) Ministry of Foreign Affairs shows medical staff inside the facility helping wounded people who have fallen to the ground, while another man is holding a dialysis tube hanging from the rubble.
The electricity was cut off and the ceiling appeared to be badly shattered, according to CNN.
"Throughout the night, terrorists opened fire on Israeli forces operating inside and outside the Indonesian hospital," the Israeli military said in a statement, claiming that "in response, Israeli forces aimed directly at specific firefighters and did not fire shells at the hospital."
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, there were 200 patients, 600 medical staff and 200,2 evacuees in Indonesian hospitals.
Gaza's health ministry said 200 patients were evacuated to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza after Israeli airstrikes.
That's 400,2 people in the hospital, including 400 patients.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Health said that "Israeli forces are surrounding Indonesian hospitals" and that "we are afraid that something like what happened at the al-Sifa hospital will happen."
The World Health Organization (WHO) has blamed the Israeli military for another attack on the hospital.
WHO Director-General Tewodros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on Twitter that "the attack on an Indonesian hospital in Gaza has alarmed the WHO" and that "health workers and civilians should not be exposed to such fears, especially inside hospitals."
(Photo = AP, Yonhap News)