A Jeep Struck at a Hospital’s Doorstep
An Israeli drone strike killed two Palestinians on Sunday when it targeted a civilian jeep near the entrance of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, at the intersection with Salah al-Din Street, in the northeastern part of Deir al-Balah, central Gaza. Local sources identified the two men killed as brothers Mohammed Attia Jaber and Hazem Attia Jaber, both residents of Rafah in southern Gaza. The strike came as reports circulated that Israeli forces would scale back targeted strikes and attacks on Gaza, with the death toll from strikes across the Strip reported to have exceeded 12 in under 12 hours by the time of the attack.
Part of a Broader Pattern of Attacks Near Medical Facilities.
The strike is the latest in a series of attacks on vehicles along Salah al-Din Street in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, an area that has repeatedly come under fire in recent weeks, raising concerns about civilian safety near one of central Gaza’s few still-functioning major medical facilities. The hospital, which has continued to receive both the wounded and the bodies of those killed in near-daily strikes despite the ceasefire agreement in place since October of last year, has itself sustained damage in previous attacks, including a strike that destroyed part of its medicine warehouses earlier in the week.
The deaths of the Jaber brothers add to a mounting toll of Palestinians killed in strikes on civilian vehicles across Gaza, a pattern that has continued largely unabated despite the declared truce. Rights monitors and local residents have repeatedly raised alarm over the targeting of cars and jeeps traveling on main roads, arguing that such strikes frequently kill or wound civilians with no clear connection to combatant activity.