On Palm Sunday, Israel Bombs The Only Christian Hospital In Gaza

Claiming it held a “command and control center used by Hamas,” Israel chose Palm Sunday to bomb the only Christian hospital in war-shattered Gaza. It was also the last fully-functioning hospital in Gaza City. No casualties from the bombing per se were reported by Gaza’s civil emergency service. However, a child who’d been hospitalized for a head wound died from “the rushed evacuation process,” said the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which runs the al Ahli Arab Hospital. The diocese is part of the Anglican Church. 

Citing Gaza Civil Defense, Middle East Eye reports that the bombs resulted in “the destruction of the surgery building and the oxygen generation station for the intensive care units.” St. Philip’s Church was one of multiple nearby buildings that also suffered damage. The IDF attributed the low casualty count to its effort to “mitigate harm to civilians or to the hospital compound, including issuing advanced warnings in the area of the terror infrastructure, the use of precise munitions, and aerial surveillance.”

A local journalist told BBC that the IDF called an emergency room doctor and urged the hospital’s immediate evacuation, saying “You have only 20 minutes to leave.” A previously-injured Khalil Bakr said he and his three wounded daughters — two amputees and a third “full of platinum plates” — managed to get out of the hospital just a couple minutes before destruction rained down.  

“For the only Christian hospital in Gaza to be attacked on Palm Sunday is especially appalling,” said British Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell in a statement. “I share in the grief of our Palestinian brothers and sisters in the Diocese of Jerusalem. I pray for the staff and patients of the hospital, and for the family of the boy who tragically died during the evacuation.”

The British government joined the condemnation, with Foreign Minister David Lammy saying the “deplorable attacks must end…Israel’s attacks on medical facilities have comprehensively degraded access to healthcare in Gaza.” Before the attack, the hospital stood alone as the only one still fully functioning in Gaza City, after Israel blew up the Al-Shifa Hospital and others. 

The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem issued its own statement: 

“This hospital, already strained by months of siege, stood as one of the last beacons of medical hope in Gaza, where dozens of healthcare institutions have been systematically destroyed. The stripping away of such sanctuaries of life and dignity is a tragedy that transcends all boundaries of politics and enters the realm of the sacred.”

While the British government and many other entities have decried the attack, there’s been no official statement from the Israel-catering Trump administration.  

Previous IDF claims of hospitals being used as Hamas facilities have grown suspect under scrutiny, with credible accusations of the IDF staging evidence before ushering in journalists to see the “proof.” Throughout the war that’s raged since the Oct 7 Hamas invasion of southern Israel, the IDF has repeatedly bombed medical facilities and fired on ambulances. 

One of the most troubling such incidents came last month, when 14 medical and other aid workers were found in a mass grave in Gaza after the IDF destroyed a convoy of ambulances and other first-response vehicles. The IDF originally claimed the vehicles “were identified advancing suspiciously” without either their headlights or emergency lights on. Then cell phone video of the IDF attack captured by one of the slain ambulance crew members proved the IDF account was completely false. The vehicles’ headlights and emergency lights were on, and the vehicles carried clear markings of their nature. 

As withering IDF gunfire rakes over the first responders, the dying Palestinian video narrator can be heard reciting the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith: “There is no God but God, Muhammad is his messenger.” Then, perhaps anticipating the video may be recovered after his murder by Israeli soldiers, he said, “Forgive me, mother. This is the path I chose — to help people. God is Great.”