Jordanian Field Hospital/2 in Gaza hit by Israeli strikes, sparks outcry in medical community

AMMAN — The exposure of the Jordanian Field Hospital Special /2 in Gaza’s Khan Younis, to shell fragments and smoke grenades due to the continuous Israeli strikes, sparked uproar among the local medical community. 

An official military source at the Jordanian Armed Forces-Arab Army (JAF) has reported that certain hospital facilities and operations have been exposed to smoke grenades and fragments as a result of continued bombardment by the Israeli forces, the Jordan News Agency (Petra) reported.

There are no casualties or material damages and all medical personnel remained unharmed, the source added. Emphasising the ongoing operations of the medical teams in the Gaza Strip, the source highlighted their humanitarian imperative to save the lives of Palestinians in Gaza.

In this regard, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that all hospitals situated in the north of Gaza are out of service, stressing the continued targeting of medical facilities and mobile medical units in the enclave. 

Commenting on the incident, Maha Fakhoury, a board member at the Jordan Medical Association (JMA) said: “There should be an end to the massacres against hospitals and medical institutions…what is happening is an organised war crime and this is unacceptable.”

Fakhouri said that the targeting of medical personnel and hospitals constitutes as a breach of the International Humanitarian Law and the rules of war. He noted that these attacks did not only target Gaza’s main hospitals, rather field hospitals which are working to support the essential needs of the strip’s deteriorating medical sector, are also under threat.

“Hospitals in the Gaza Strip have got caught up in the middle of the escalating war,” Mahmoud Bilal, a Jordanian physician and a JMA member, told The Jordan Times. 

The association strongly condemns Israeli attacks on all hospitals, according to Bilal who said that “there is no exception in this war... hospitals which are also considered shelters for the patients are targeted and this means there is no safe place in the strip.”

As for the delivery of medical services it is an obligation under the laws of war that should be respected and supported, he added.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said in an update that there have been over 250 attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza and the West Bank since the war began on October 7, adding that 36 hospitals have been damaged.

The WHO emphasised “the urgent need to protect all health workers, patients, health transport, and health facilities.”