People check the destruction in the aftermath of an Israeli strike on the al-Ahli hospital, also known as the Baptist or Ahli Arab hospital, in Gaza City on April 13, 2025. (Photo by AFP)
Israeli forces launched a devastating attack on Gaza City’s al-Ahli Hospital, the last functioning medical facility in the north, destroying the hospital’s emergency unit, main entrance, and a critical facility housing medical oxygen for intensive care patients.
Following the Sunday attack, critically ill patients have been left stranded on the streets as the largest remaining functioning hospital in northern Gaza is now out of service, according to reports.
Razan al-Nahhas, the emergency doctor in Gaza, said at least three people, including a 12-year-old boy with a head injury, have been reported dead following their forced evacuation from the Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.
“He was on oxygen, as were the two other patients, and the family basically walked with them to a nearby hospital, a very small facility with no capacity for the number of patients head their way. And they [the patients] arrived dead,” said al-Nahhas, who is in the city of Deir el-Balah.
“There’s so many patients on the streets. Some mats have been made out to Al Shifa at this point. But I can’t even imagine the scene of patients and their family members scattered in the streets, trying to find their way to a place for medical care. I’m certain that many of them will not make it.”
Al-Nahhas said many of those at al-Ahli have severe injuries.
“The majority of patients that are admitted to this hospital are patients that are victims of these traumatic, explosive injuries, unfortunately,” she said.
These include patients with multiple amputated limbs and patients with traumatic injuries to their chest, abdomen or head, as well as “a lot of burn patients,” she added.
“They’re very high-risk patients that need to be closely monitored, not lying or scrambling in the streets trying to find their way to another medical facility.”
This is because Israel is working under the US’s diplomatic cover, with Washington blocking all international mechanisms for accountability, it added.
Authorities in Gaza also condemned the attack and said that al-Ahli Hospital was treating hundreds of patients when it was bombed.
Verified footage of the moment Israeli forces bombed al-Ahli Hospital shows a ball of fire and smoke rising in the sky as a loud explosion is heard.
It also shows displaced Palestinians, including children, fleeing in the aftermath.
Video of the aftermath of the attack shows rescue workers at the site of a bombed building at al-Ahli Hospital, looking through the rubble for survivors.
According to al-Nahhas, patients in north Gaza have nowhere to go after the Israeli attack on al-Ahli Hospital.
The Government Media Office in Gaza has published a list of 35 hospitals – including al-Ahli Hospital – that Israeli forces have attacked during the ongoing war, which began on October 7, 2023.
Throughout its devastating war, the Israeli military has systematically targeted Gaza’s hospitals with impunity, repeatedly alleging that resistance fighters utilize these facilities as “command centers” despite failing to provide any evidence to support such baseless claims.
These attacks have not only severely crippled the already strained healthcare infrastructure in Gaza but also compounded the humanitarian crisis unfolding in the besieged territory, where more than 50,900 Palestinians, most of them women and children have been killed during relentless Israeli bombings.
