Sarah Khalil
The New Arab / April 13, 2025
Israeli forces bombed Gaza’s last functioning hospital in the north, Al-Ahli Arab (Baptist), on Palm Sunday, forcing it out of service.
In the early hours of Sunday, Israeli forces bombed Al-Ahli Arab (Baptist) Hospital, the last functioning central medical facility in northern Gaza, in an attack that has drawn outrage from health officials, church leaders, and survivors.
The hospital, affiliated with the Anglican Church and previously operating around the clock, was forced completely out of service following the attack, further collapsing Gaza’s already devastated healthcare infrastructure.
The bombing targeted critical departments, including the emergency ward, surgical and reception areas, laboratory, radiology, and central pharmacy. Survivors say the Israeli army issued a last-minute evacuation warning by phone to some individuals nearby – not directly to the hospital – leaving medical staff and patients with only 20 to 30 minutes to flee in the darkness. Many were too injured or immobile to escape.
“I tried to get my husband out, but I couldn’t,” said Zeinat al-Jundi, whose husband, a double amputee, was in surgery for a high fever. “We were told they would bomb the hospital. Then the building shook, windows blew out, and dust filled the air. We were choking. We lived death in that moment.”
Another survivor, Mohammed Abu Nasser, who was bedridden, said: “How do you expect someone like me to evacuate at 1 a.m.? We stayed behind. Then the rockets came. Everyone was crying. No one knew where to go.”
The hospital had become the primary lifeline for northern Gaza since Israel’s earlier destruction of Al-Shifa, Kamal Adwan, and the Indonesian Hospital. Before the bombing, Al-Ahli was performing 120 wound-care operations daily, hosting patients with severe injuries, chronic illnesses, and those transferred from other bombed-out facilities. It also served as a key triage point and morgue, receiving casualties from recent massacres in Gaza City, including in Shuja’iya and Tuffah.
With the destruction of the emergency wing and diagnostic services, the hospital is no longer able to receive or treat patients.
“These departments are the heart of the hospital. We are now completely out of service,” hospital director Dr. Fadel Naeem told The New Arab’s Arabic language edition, Al-Araby al-Jadeed. Patients have been transferred to what remains of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, a facility that was already overwhelmed.
Dr. Mohammed Abu Selmiyah, Al-Shifa’s director, warned that more than 120 patients had to be relocated in “miserable condition” – many of them sent to tents near Al-Quds Hospital or the Kuwaiti Field Hospital in Gaza City.
“This is a death sentence,” he said. “We had only 300 hospital beds left in all of Gaza City before this strike. Now we’re down to less than 100 beds for more than a million people.”
The attack also obliterated Gaza’s last operational central laboratory, which processed vital tests for blood transfusions and surgeries.
“All blood units, testing machines, and medical supplies were either destroyed or damaged. This will paralyse services even in the hospitals still standing,” Dr. Sahar Ghanem, director of lab services at the Ministry of Health, told Al-Araby al-Jadeed.
The hospital had also been targeted in a deadly Israeli strike in October 2023 that killed hundreds, including displaced civilians sheltering in the courtyard.
This latest attack came on Palm Sunday, prompting condemnation from the Anglican Church. Rev. Don Binder, of the Council of Churches in Jerusalem.
“To bomb a Christian-run hospital on one of the holiest days of the year is not only inhumane – it is an insult to Christians everywhere and a violation of international humanitarian law,” he said.
Sarah Khalil is a news editor and journalist at The New Arab
