GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency said an air strike hit a hospital Sunday, killing at least seven people, while the Zionist entity claimed it had targeted fighters at the no longer functioning facility. “Seven martyrs and several injured people, including critical cases, have been recovered following the (Zionist) strike on the upper floor of Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza City,” a civil defense agency statement said.

The health ministry in Gaza said the hospital was still in use. “The Al-Wafaa Hospital is partially operational, providing care to patients with physical disabilities,” the ministry’s director general, Munir Al-Barsh, told AFP. “The hospital had been rehabilitated and was getting ready to receive patients. Had it not been targeted by (Zionist) shelling today, it would have been ready to fully reopen in the next few days,” he said.

Palestinian health officials said Zionist military strikes across the enclave killed at least 23 people on Sunday. The Zionist campaign in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, mostly civilians. The Zionist military said approximately “five projectiles” were fired from northern Gaza into Zionist territory on Sunday.

The strike on Al-Wafaa Hospital came a day after the military ended a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, an assault the World Health Organization reported left the facility empty of patients and staff. The military also detained the hospital’s chief, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, saying he was suspected of being a Hamas fighter, along with more than 240 Palestinians.

Some patients were evacuated from Kamal Adwan to the Indonesian Hospital, which is not in service, and medics were prevented from joining them there, the health ministry said. Other patients and staff were taken to other medical facilities. On Sunday, health officials said a Zionist tank shell hit the upper floor of the Al-Ahly Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City near the x-ray division.

Zionist forces carrying out a weeks-long offensive in northern Gaza ordered any residents remaining in Beit Hanoun to leave the town on Sunday. The instruction to leave has caused a new wave of displacement although it was not immediately clear how many people were affected, the residents said. Palestinian and United Nations officials say no place is safe in Gaza and that evacuations worsen humanitarian conditions of the population.

Much of the area around the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahia has been cleared of people and razed, fueling speculation that the Zionist entity intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends. The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had lost communication with people still trapped in the town, and it was unable to send teams into the area because of the raid.

Meanwhile, Gaza health officials said that a 20-day-old baby died on Sunday from “severe cold” as the war-ravaged Palestinian territory grapples with winter weather. Jumaa Al-Batran died from the cold, while his twin brother remains in the intensive care unit at a local hospital, the health ministry said in a statement.

Marwan Al-Hamas, head of field hospitals in Gaza, confirmed the death. He said it brought to five the total number of children “who have died due to severe cold” in recent weeks. “There is no electricity. The water is cold and there is no gas, heating or food,” said Yahya Al-Batran, the father of the child. “My children are dying in front of my eyes and nobody cares. Jumaa has died and I fear that his brother Ali may follow.”

Yahya Al-Batran said he and his wife were living in a tattered tent in the city of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people are crammed into unsuitable tents, most of which were hastily set up in Deir el-Balah and in the southern areas of Khan Yunis and Rafah. – Agencies