There have been no casualties. The civil emergency service reports. The local reporter, who was reporting from the hospital, reported that an Israeli army officer phoned a doctor working in the emergency department and instructed them to vacate the hospital immediately.
“All patients and displaced people must go out to a safe distance,” the officer reportedly said.
“You have only 20 minutes to leave.”
Chaos as Patients and Staff Flee Near Hospital in Gaza
Videos posted on social media depicted employees and patients exiting the building while it was still night outside.
🚨BREAKING : Israeli forces have bombed the operating room of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/1bLHhUuvf3
— Gaza Notifications (@gazanotice) April 12, 2025
Remember when Israel bombed the first hospital in Gaza and the world wouldn’t believe it and Israel blamed a misfired rocket from Hamas. Israel has now destroyed all hospitals in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/VONj5QTwt7
— Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) April 13, 2025
Palestinian women and children were also fleeing from an interior courtyard in the hospital where they had taken refuge.
Al-Ahli – a small clinic prior to the war – is now the sole remaining hospital operating in Gaza City after the Al-Shifa medical complex and northern Strip hospitals were destroyed.
Hamas Condemns Attack on Gaza Hospital
In its release, the Hamas government media office denounced the attack.
Israel “is perpetrating an atrocious crime by attacking Al-Ahli Hospital, which has hundreds of patients and medical personnel”, it stated.
In October 2023, the same hospital was attacked, and hundreds of people were killed.
A Palestinian attack was blamed by Palestinian officials on an Israeli strike for causing the blast. Israel attributed the blast to a botched rocket attack by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which did not accept responsibility.
Background: Conflict Since October 2023
The Israeli army initiated an operation to wipe out Hamas in retaliation for an unprecedented cross-border raid on 7 October 2023. During the attack, nearly 1,200 Israelis died. Additionally, 251 others were captured as hostages.
Over 50,933 have been killed in Gaza since then, the territory’s Hamas-ruled health ministry reported.
Of them, 1,563 have been martyred since 18 March, when Israel resumed its aggression in the Gaza Strip, the ministry added.
