Israeli Strikes Kill Four in Gaza, Destroy Medical Warehouse Near Hospital

Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip on Saturday killed at least four Palestinians, while separate attacks targeted a medical warehouse adjacent to a hospital that health officials describe as a lifeline for the enclave. The strikes came days after Hamas and other Palestinian factions signed a disarmament agreement that the United States hailed as a breakthrough toward ending the war.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, an Israeli drone struck the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, killing two people and wounding several others who were taken to al-Shifa Hospital. A drone strike in Deir el-Balah killed one person, and another Palestinian died in an attack on a tent encampment near a school in al-Mawasi, north of Khan Younis.

'Abhorrent Crime'

In a separate development, an overnight airstrike destroyed medical warehouses linked to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah. The Gaza Health Ministry, which oversees hospitals in the territory, said two of the four warehouses were completely destroyed and two others severely damaged, calling the attack an “abhorrent crime” and urging international intervention to protect medical facilities.

Al Jazeera correspondent Moath al-Kahlout, who visited the site, said the Israeli military issued evacuation orders 15 minutes before striking the facility. He also reported that nearby tents housing displaced people were damaged. “For them, the worst is yet to come, as they will begin another journey of displacement,” he said.

Hospital spokesman Khalil al-Daqran told Anadolu Agency that the attack destroyed intravenous fluids, medicines, and supplies used for dialysis and intensive care. Witnesses said tents of displaced families near the hospital caught fire.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza, said Al-Aqsa Hospital is one of the few facilities in central Gaza still able to treat large numbers of patients, serving as a primary option for displaced families after months of conflict that have crippled the territory’s health system. The Israeli military and Shin Bet security agency said they destroyed five Hamas weapons depots overnight, one of which was near Al-Aqsa Hospital.

The Gaza Health Ministry added that seven people were killed and 76 wounded across the territory in the past 48 hours, with another person dying from previous injuries. The ministry put the death toll since the ceasefire began at 1,222, and the total death toll since October 2023 at 73,349.

Recovery of Bodies

The Gaza Civil Defense said it completed the recovery of bodies from a house in the Sabra area of Gaza City, which was destroyed by Israeli forces about two weeks ago. Teams recovered the remains of 112 people, including 40 children and 38 women, from the site belonging to the Husseiniya and Abu Sharia families. Mohammed Abu Dan, who supervised the operation, said 157 bodies remain missing, and some remains were melted into concrete or rebar or destroyed by the blast force.

Mark Pfeifle, a former U.S. deputy national security adviser, told Al Jazeera that Israel’s strikes in Gaza after the announcement of a new roadmap for Hamas disarmament and Israeli withdrawal are a sign that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not ready to accept the deal in its current form. “I think what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing is signaling that he’s not fully ready to engage in this framework and still has problems with it,” Pfeifle said.