U.S. voices concern as Gaza hospitals hit, reported overall Palestinian death toll tops 11,000
Israel again blames blast at Al-Shifa Hospital on misfired militant rocket
WARNING: This story includes graphic video of dead and injured people
The latest:
- Gaza health-care system at 'point of no return,' says Red Cross.
- Israel revises death toll of Oct. 7 attack down to 1,200.
- Hundreds of Canadians on approved list fail to leave Gaza.
- French president calls on Israel to stop bombing Gaza.
The U.S. on Friday expressed growing concern about the rising Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip — where airstrikes hit three Gaza hospitals and a school and health officials said the number killed in the five weeks of Israeli bombardment had topped 11,000.
In his strongest comments to date on the plight of civilians caught in the Gaza crossfire, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on a visit to India: "Far too many Palestinians have been killed; far too many have suffered these past weeks."
Blinken welcomed the four-hour humanitarian Israeli pauses that the White House announced on Thursday but told reporters more action was needed to protect Gaza's civilians.
Israel has faced growing calls for restraint in its month-long war with Hamas but says the militants, who attacked Israel on Oct. 7 and took hostages, would exploit a truce to regroup.
French President Emmanuel Macron told the BBC that Israel must stop bombing Gaza and killing civilians, adding there is "no justification" for the rising civilian death toll.
"De facto, today, civilians are bombed — de facto. These babies, these ladies, these old people are bombed and killed. So there is no reason for that and no legitimacy. So we do urge Israel to stop," he said Friday.
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Israel's army said Palestinians were allowed to leave for over seven hours along a road south on Friday, but there was no sign of a let-up in the fighting.
Palestinians said an Israeli missile struck the road used by people to flee south and Hamas-run media said three people were killed.
Meanwhile fighting between Israel and Hamas escalated near and around Gaza City's besieged and overcrowded hospitals, as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the territory. Palestinian officials said missiles landed in the courtyard of Gaza's biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, in the early hours, damaged the Indonesian Hospital and reportedly set fire to the Nasser Rantissi pediatric cancer hospital. Gaza City's Al-Buraq school was also struck.
The hospitals are in northern Gaza, where Israel says Hamas militants are concentrated, and are full of displaced people, patients and doctors. Israel says Hamas is using them as human shields, which the group denies.
"Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals, on Rantissi, Nasser hospitals and on Al-Shifa," said Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, director of the Al-Shifa Hospital.
Israel's military said later that a misfired projectile launched by Palestinian militants in Gaza had hit Al-Shifa. Israel has previously blamed a misfired rocket by militants for a blast that hit the al-Ahli Hospital in mid-October, which Gaza officials say killed hundreds.
The Israeli army "does not fire on hospitals," spokesperson Lt.-Col. Richard Hecht told an evening briefing. "If we see Hamas terrorists firing from hospitals we'll do what we need to do. We're aware of the sensitivity, but again, if we see Hamas terrorists, we'll kill them."
Israeli tanks, which have been advancing through northern Gaza for almost two weeks, have taken up positions around the Nasser Rantissi facility and Al-Quds Hospital, medical staff said earlier, raising the alarm.
The Palestinian Red Cross said Israeli forces were shooting at Al-Quds, and there were violent clashes with one person killed and 28 wounded, most of them children.
Ashraf Al-Qidra, spokesperson for the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, said Israel had bombed buildings of Al-Shifa Hospital five times since Thursday night.
"One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack," he said. Videos verified by Reuters showed scenes of panic and people covered in blood.
A Palestinian video creator, Ahmed Hijazi, captured some of the aftermath at Al-Shifa in graphic footage shared on social media and verified by Reuters. Hijazi has been documenting the situation at the hospital complex on a daily basis and has accumulated two million followers on Instagram.
WATCH | Aftermath at Al-Shifa Hospital:
The World Health Organization said colleagues had reported "intense violence" at Al-Shifa and "significant bombardment" at Nasser Rantissi. The Health Ministry said later that the Rantissi Hospital was reported to be on fire after suffering a direct hit.
"Israel ... targeted at dawn a number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip," Palestinian Health Minister Mai Alkaila said. A person who said they were a member of staff of Nasser Children's Hospital posted an appeal on social media saying they were surrounded.
Indonesia said parts of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza had been damaged in overnight explosions nearby.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the health-care system in Gaza had reached a "point of no return."
Changing death tolls
Palestinian officials said on Friday 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Israel had said 1,400 people were killed in that attack, mostly civilians, and about 240 were taken hostage. On Friday Israel's Foreign Ministry said a revised death toll from the attack stood at about 1,200. Thirty-nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in combat since.
More than 100 United Nations employees have been killed since the war began in Gaza, the UN Palestinian refugee agency said, making it the deadliest conflict ever for the UN in such a short period of time.
In Israel, sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas to alert people to Hamas rocket fire. Medics reported two women in Tel Aviv suffered shrapnel wounds from a salvo.
The armed wing of Hamas said on Friday it was still firing rockets and shells into Israel and fighting off troops in Gaza.
More than 100,000 Gaza residents had fled south over the last two days as Israeli forces operate "deep in Gaza City," chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari said.
But evacuations from Gaza into Egypt for foreign passport holders and for Palestinians needing urgent treatment were suspended on Friday, sources said. A Palestinian official and an Egyptian medical source blamed problems bringing medical evacuees to the Rafah border crossing from inside Gaza.
Global Affairs Canada said none of the Canadians on Friday's list of foreign nationals approved to leave the Gaza Strip were able to exit.
There were 266 Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their family members who were allowed to cross into Egypt at the Rafah border crossing Friday.
With files from The Canadian Press and CBC News