The Israeli army dropped several bunker-buster bombs on the medical complex of Gaza’s European Hospital in Khan Younis on Tuesday, leaving over 28 people dead, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense. On the same day, the Israeli army also struck the burn unit of Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, killing renowned journalist Hassan Eslayeh, among several others.
The deadly strike on the European Hospital is one of the deadliest attacks in Israel’s recent intensification of its bombing campaign across the Gaza Strip, which today killed over 120 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. According to Israeli media, citing security officials, the Israeli army used nine U.S.-made bunker-buster bombs in the attack, creating giant craters in the ground. Harrowing CCTV footage of the bombs making impact on the pavement of the hospital grounds circulated on social media on Tuesday and Wednesday, depicting several bystanders getting caught in the blast.
The strike was allegedly targeting Muhammad Sinwar, the brother and successor of Hamas’s slain leader, Yahya Sinwar, according to unconfirmed Israeli media reports.
Hamas has not confirmed or denied these reports, while the Israeli army has not issued any official statement concerning the identity of the attack’s target.
The Israeli army claimed to be targeting an underground “command-and-control” complex underneath the European Hospital. However, according to Haaretz, the Israeli army provided no proof to substantiate its assertion, instead releasing aerial footage that shows a tunnel opening far away from the hospital.
“Hell raining down”
In the vicinity of the European Hospital in Gaza, survivors described experiencing “hell raining down” on them following the airstrikes in the medical complex. The missiles fell in multiple locations, trapping bystanders in clouds of smoke and conflagrations of fire, witnesses told Mondoweiss.
Ahmad Atallah, a vendor who stands by the hospital door every day, says he witnessed the ground “split open and swallow people,” creating deep craters in the pavement.
“The bombing began from all sides of the hospital, and no one knew which direction to flee in,” Atallah said. “Everyone stood still and took cover. The strikes felt random: the bombs fell in the street, on the hospital grounds, and near intersections.”
Atallah describes seeing the ground “open up” as people fell through the gaps created by the force of the impact. “There is nothing left of the horrors of the Day of Judgment that we have not witnessed in Gaza,” Atallah says. “We saw the ground swallow people. We have seen people being burned alive. We have seen dogs tearing at martyrs’ corpses. We have seen people dying from starvation. They have inflicted every kind of death on us.”
Atallah says that every department in the hospital was damaged as a result of the intensity of the missile barrage, noting that the bombing took a long time to end. “The bombing lasted for nearly half an hour, a full half hour of continuous bombardment from the warplanes.”
Gaza’s European Hospital is one of the most important hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip for major and minor surgeries. Since the start of the war, it has been a destination for foreign medical delegations volunteering to work in Gaza. The Ministry of Health announced on its Telegram channel that the hospital was put out of service after the attack.
According to the Ministry, the hospital currently has 28 intensive care beds, 12 nurseries, 260 inpatient beds, 25 emergency beds, and 60 oncology beds, all of which are out of service.
Israel escalates air campaign following Trump Middle East visit
Israel’s recent bombing campaign has targeted displacement centers, tent encampments, schools, mosques, and the two hospitals on Tuesday. Arabic-language Israeli army spokesperson Avichai Aderi said that the Israeli air force launched airstrikes on 130 targets across Gaza in the past 48 hours. This marks the most deadly escalation in the Israeli air campaign over the past two weeks.
Since the beginning of May alone, Israeli warplanes have launched dozens of airstrikes on civilian homes, killing entire families, a development that rarely receives media coverage due to the daily nature of the strikes and the difficulty of accessing targeted areas. Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Basal told Mondoweiss that the bombing has “increased significantly in its targeting of family homes, which has led to an increase in the number of fatalities and injuries.”
Moreover, Israel bombed the Shaaban al-Rayes School in the al-Tuffah area east of Gaza City on May 1, and the al-Karama School east of al-Tuffah on May 7, killing 15 people. During the week between the bombing of the two schools, the Israeli military bombed 11 homes across the Strip, according to the daily reports from the Civil Defense. Other strikes throughout the second week of May targeted a restaurant in Gaza City, an UNRWA building in Jabalia, and the Islamic University in Khan Younis.
The escalating deadly air campaign coincides with public efforts to end the war on Gaza as U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in the Middle East this week. Trump had previously announced that his trip would include the announcement of “good news,” leading residents in Gaza to express optimism that his visit would result in a declaration of an end to the war.
Following Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia and ahead of his upcoming stop in the United Arab Emirates, the Israeli army escalated its attacks, especially after Hamas released Israeli-American captive soldier Edan Alexander as a “goodwill gesture” to the U.S. in the hopes that Trump would pressure Israel to end the war.
This comes amid increasing tensions between Trump and Netanyahu following the U.S. President’s exclusion of Israel from talks with Iran last month, his cutting a deal with Yemen’s Ansar Allah behind Israel’s back, and the U.S. engaging in direct negotiations with Hamas that led to Alexander’s release.
Israel says it wants to free the hostages. Well, if I were Hamas, I’d hang on to some of them, because once they’re all free Israel will be free to completely destroy Gaza. Maybe nuke it.