Gaza officials say Israeli strikes kill 27 amid U.S. unease at the death toll. As the U.S. expressed new concern over the war’s rising death toll, Israeli airstrikes struck three Gaza hospitals and a school on Friday, killing at least 27 people. Palestinian sources also reported that a ground fight was underway at another facility.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken decried the number of Palestinians dead, which Gaza officials claimed was over 11,000, in his sharpest remarks to date about human suffering.

Blinken told reporters that further action was required to defend Gaza’s people, even if he applauded the White House’s announcement on Thursday of the four-hour humanitarian Israeli pauses.

On a tour to India, he declared, “Far too many Palestinians have suffered these past weeks; far too many have been killed.”

Israel claims that the militants, who assaulted the country on October 7 and kidnapped hostages, would take advantage of a truce to regroup despite mounting appeals for moderation in its month-long conflict with Hamas. It alleges that Hamas conceals weapons in tunnels beneath hospitals and employs people as human shields—charges that Hamas refutes.

According to Gaza officials, early in the morning, missiles damaged the Indonesian hospital and perhaps set fire to the Nasser Rantissi pediatric cancer hospital. The missiles fell in the courtyard of Al-Shifa, the largest hospital in the enclave.

The facilities, which are crowded with displaced people in addition to patients and medical staff, are located in northern Gaza, the area that Israel claims is home to the Hamas terrorists who attacked it last month.

Medical personnel had raised the alert after learning that Israeli tanks, which have been moving across northern Gaza for almost two weeks, had taken up positions near the Nasser Rantissi, Children’s, and Eye hospitals, as well as the Al-Quds hospital.

According to Mohammad Abu Selmeyah, the director of Shifa Hospital, which received missile damage early on Friday, “Israel is now launching a war on Gaza City hospitals.”

According to Ashraf Al-Qidra, a spokesman for the Gaza health ministry, Israel has struck Shifa hospital facilities five times. “One Palestinian was killed and several were wounded in the early morning attack,” he stated by telephone. Videos that Reuters confirmed showed bloodied victims and scenes of fear.

Selmeyah subsequently reported that Israeli strikes on the Al-Buraq school in Gaza City, where residents were taking refuge after their homes were damaged, resulted in at least 25 deaths.

GUARDED STATUS

According to the Palestinian Red Cross, there were gunshots and violent altercations at the Al-Quds hospital, resulting in one fatality and twenty-eight injuries, most of which were to minors.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, the Israeli army’s spokeswoman, stated during a briefing in the evening that the military “does not fire on hospitals.” We’ll take necessary action if we witness terrorists from Hamas firing from medical buildings. We understand the delicate nature of hospitals, but we will shoot Hamas terrorists if we spot them.”

According to Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy, Shifa Hospital may lose its protected status and become a legitimate target because the Hamas headquarters is located in the hospital’s basement.

It was impossible, Qidra replied, to empty the hospitals. “We are talking about 45 babies in incubators, 52 children in intensive care units, hundreds of wounded patients, and tens of thousands of displaced people,” he stated.

The army reported on Friday that Palestinians were permitted to leave for over seven hours along a road south. Still, there was no indication of a lull in the fighting that has decimated the seaside enclave. On Thursday, the White House announced that Israel had agreed to halt military operations in parts of north Gaza for four hours a day.

Three people were reported dead by Hamas-run media when an Israeli missile targeted the route that refugees were using to escape south, according to Palestinians.

In Tel Aviv and the surrounding suburbs, sirens went out to warn residents of Hamas rocket fire. Medical professionals in Tel Aviv reported that two women had suffered shrapnel wounds from a volley.

The armed wing of Hamas declared on Friday that it was continuing to repel Israeli soldiers in Gaza and launching rockets and mortars into Israel.

A THOUSAND FEELS

Even before the fighting encircled Gaza, its hospitals were having trouble keeping up with the demand for clean water, medical supplies, and fuel for generators.

Many people left the scene of the explosion at Shifa Hospital. Early in the conflict, Ayman Al-Masri was injured and told Reuters that he had taken refuge there ten days prior with his mother and sister.

“We seek a political settlement, a ceasefire, and other outcomes. Every day, tens of our children are murdered,” he declared.

11,078 Gazans have died as of Thursday, according to Palestinian sources, as a result of air and artillery assaults. Israel claims that 1,400 people were murdered, most of them civilians, and that on October 7, Hamas kidnapped roughly 240 of them. Since then, 39 troops have died in action.

According to the World Health Organization, coworkers had reported “significant bombardment” at Rantissi Hospital and “intense violence” at Shifa Hospital. Subsequently, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced that Rantissi Hospital had been directly damaged and was reportedly on fire.

“Israel targeted several hospitals in the Gaza Strip at dawn,” stated Mai Alkaila, the Palestinian Minister of Health. An individual claiming to be an employee at Nasser Children’s Hospital made a social media plea, claiming to be encircled.

According to Indonesia, nighttime blasts close to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza caused damage to some of its buildings.

The Gaza healthcare system has reached a “point of no return,” according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which made a demand on Friday for the respect and safety of medical facilities, patients, and healthcare workers in Gaza.

The U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said on Friday that over 100 UN staffers had lost their lives since the Israel-Hamas war broke out in Gaza, making it the bloodiest battle the organization has ever been involved in so quickly.