GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories, Dec 19, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - One of the

last remaining hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip stopped operating on
Tuesday after being stormed by the Israeli army, its director said.

Fadel Naim told AFP Israeli troops had attacked the Al-Ahli hospital and
arrested doctors, medical staff and patients, destroying part of the
building's grounds.

Israel's attack has "put the hospital out of action", he said. "We can't
receive any patients or injured."

At least four people who were wounded by Israeli fire on Monday died on
Tuesday after being injured in the Al-Ahli assault, he said.

"According to our information, there are dozens of wounded in the surrounding
streets," he said.

Al-Ahli, also known as the Baptist or Ahli Arab hospital, was already heavily
damaged by an explosion in its car park on October 17, resulting in at least
dozens of deaths.

Militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad accuse Israel, which denies
responsibility and blames a misfired rocket by Islamic Jihad for that blast.

Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly
been hit by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war
between Israel and Hamas on October 7.

Israeli troops have previously raided other medical facilities in Gaza,
including Al-Shifa, the territory's largest hospital, which is now
functioning at minimal capacity with a very small team.

On Sunday, the World Health Organization said the Al-Ahli hospital was
receiving "critical patients" from Al-Shifa for surgery.

The Al-Shifa emergency department, devastated by Israeli bombardments, is "a
blood bath" and "in need of resuscitation", the WHO said.

Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesman for the health ministry in the Hamas-run
territory, said on Tuesday another hospital in northern Gaza, Al Awda in the
Jabalia area, had been turned "into a barracks" by the Israeli army.

He said the army was holding 240 people in the hospital, "including 80
medical staff and 40 patients," and had arrested its director, doctor Ahmad
Mhanna.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the rising civilian
death toll and destruction of hospitals in Gaza.

The deadliest ever war in the narrow territory began after Hamas militants
poured across the border and launched a brutal attack that left 1,139 people
dead in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the
latest official Israeli figures.

Some 250 people were abducted by militants during the attack and taken to the
Gaza Strip.

In Israel's retaliatory assault against Hamas, at least 19,667 people, mostly
women and children, have been killed in the Palestinian territory, according
to the health ministry there.