250 killed by Israeli airstrikes over 24-hour period, European Hospital struggles to respond

The bodies of 11 people killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in eastern Khan Younis arrived at the nearby European Gaza Hospital on Sunday evening.

They were among 250 people killed in the Gaza Strip over a 24-hour period, the Gaza Health Ministry said on Monday morning. Intensive airstrikes overnight had targeted densely populated areas in central and southern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are taking shelter.

On Monday, the European Hospital struggled to triage those wounded in Occupation airstrikes and receive the dead. “There are several different injuries we are dealing with due to the Occupation's heavy bombardment of homes,” said the director of the European Gaza Hospital, Dr. Youssef al-Aqqad.

“Homes are destroyed on top of residents which has caused injuries to the head, feet, and chest, all of which need specific departments to be cared for. The hospital is also treating broken bodies with broken feet, hands, spines and rib cages.”

But overcrowding and a lack of resources is making it difficult for the hospital to treat the wounded and receive the dead.

“22,000 displaced people are currently taking shelter in the hospital’s gardens, its corridors indoors and outdoors, its operation rooms and everywhere else in the hospital,” he told Mada Masr.

“The Occupation is making movement in the hospital very difficult to the extent that moving an injured or sick patient from the operation room to a different section is very difficult,” he continued.

The European Hospital, which covers an area of around 0.065 square kilometers, as well as the Nasser Complex in the south west of Khan Younis, have become focal points for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people in the Gaza Strip.

They are two of only nine out of 36 hospitals in Gaza’s south which are still partially functional, operating at three times their capacity, the World Health Organization (WHO) said last week. There are no functioning hospitals in Gaza’s North. “Al Ahli hospital along with Al-Shifa, Al-Awda and Al-Sahaba hospitals are still treating patients but not admitting new ones. These hospitals are still sheltering thousands of displaced people,” the WHO added.

At least 1.9 million out of the 2.3 million Gazan residents have been forcibly displaced to the southern area of the besieged strip since the Occupation launched its military campaign on October 7. But airstrikes continue to target central and southern Gaza.

At least 70 people were killed in a series of airstrikes on Sunday night on the Maghazi refugee camp. On Monday, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that the intense bombardment led to the closure of main roads between the Bureiji, Maghazi and Nuseirat camps, preventing ambulances and rescue teams from reaching the wounded.

Israel expanded its ground operations to southern Gaza at the beginning of December, with clashes reaching as far as central Khan Younis. Residents were ordered to evacuate, pushing thousands — some of whom had already been displaced from the north — still further south toward Rafah.

Meanwhile, airstrikes continue to hit areas in both northern and southern Gaza.