Ahli Hospital in Gaza City suffers damage from fire set by ‘outlaws,’ attack by IDF drone

[Episcopal News Service] The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem reported that on Aug. 17, its Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City suffered a fire set by local outlaws that resulted in two areas of the hospital being badly damaged by fire. Later in the day, a drone operated by the Israel Defense Forces shot into the hospital compound, killing seven people and wounding five.

The hospital is the oldest and only Christian hospital in Gaza.

Attacks began during the morning, the diocese’s Aug. 18 statement said, when what it described as “armed members of a local outlaw band” brought a wounded man into the compound and demanded that he be treated. The statement noted he was treated “promptly and with full respect” before being discharged.

The men then set fire to the hospital’s morgue and staff prayer room before blocking the hospital’s entrance, preventing firefighters from entering to fight the blaze.

After some time, the group’s leader arrived and intervened so the fire could be extinguished, but not before it had badly damaged those areas of the hospital and came “dangerously close to tents currently serving as the hospital’s emergency department,” forcing staff to evacuate patients there.

Once hospital operations had returned to normal, a second band of men entered the hospital campus and began “shooting into the air and shouting wildly for the next two hours.” This drew the attention of the IDF drone, which fired into the hospital compound. The drone operator did not warn staff of the intent to fire.

Heads of the local clans and tribes came to the hospital later in the day to condemn the acts and to show their solidarity with its staff.

The diocese in its statement called on all parties involved to recognize that the hospital is protected by the Fourth Geneva Convention and to refrain from turning it “into a battleground.”

In addition, it invited Christians and others around the world to pray and advocate for its “courageous” hospital staff and for those serving other institutions in the region, so they can continue to work without assaults or disruptions. In their work, the diocese said, these employees offer “Christ’s compassionate healing ministry in the very homeland in which our Lord himself served during his earthly life.”