Yousef Abu al-Rish, deputy minister of health in the Gaza Strip, said that the Israeli army warned the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital with two shells a day before it was struck, calling on the world to take a stand on Israel's crimes and bring those responsible to trial.
He added – during a press conference amid the bodies of the victims of the bombing – that the administration of the Baptist Hospital contacted the bishop of the Evangelical Church in Britain and informed him of the incident of throwing the two shells, stressing that the bishop hurried to inform all relevant international institutions and then sent a message of reassurance to the hospital and asked his administration to continue working.
Abu al-Rish confirmed that the representative of the World Health Organization in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Maher Abu Sitta, asked the Israeli side about the reasons for not warning the hospital before it was bombed, and the Israeli officials replied that the phone was called and no one answered, so the warning was made through these shells, and they asked him why they did not evacuate the place immediately.
Abu al-Rish sent – according to him – photos of the hospital that was bombed to the Red Cross, the humanitarian coordinator at the United Nations and the World Health Organization to confirm that Israel's threat to hospitals is taking place in full view of the world without anyone moving a finger or taking action against him, which represents a message of reassurance to him to proceed with the bombing, which he did in the National Baptist Hospital.
He said that what the occupation did in the Baptist Hospital was an embodiment of the crimes that were happening in fascist times, stressing that he saw children with severed heads and unimaginable scenes.
"The occupation lied and said that Israeli children were beheaded, and today I am showing you children whose heads were beheaded and whose stomachs were cut off and their parents did not recognize them, in a crime the world knows no other."
According to the spokesman, the number of martyrs after the recent massacre exceeded 3,11, in addition to 1250,70 injured, and <>,<> missing under the rubble, <>% of whom were women and children.
The spokesman stressed that medical personnel were performing surgeries in the corridors and without anesthesia tools to save what could be saved, however, Israel bombed the hospital before the eyes of the world.
"Today, we are working in these circumstances, after the closure of crossings and roads, cutting off electricity and fuel to hospitals and preventing the injured from diverting, the tragedy is completed by the bombing of the hospital where people sought refuge, thinking it was safe due to its religious and humanitarian status," he said.
He pointed out that the occupation followed the bombing of the Baptist Hospital with another shelling in the vicinity of the European Hospital, adding that "Israel is watching the world's reaction to its bombing of hospitals and the threat of bombing them, and therefore we appeal to the free world to stop this occupier and rein him and bring his leaders who bragged before the world to bomb hospitals for trial."
He called on the countries of the world to take an urgent pause, saying, "Silence increases Israel's crimes and we put you before your responsibilities."
Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta, the representative of the World Health Organization at the same conference, said that after the completion of the operation, the sound of a rocket was heard, followed by a huge explosion, which led to the fall of the ceiling of the operating room.
Abu Sitta said that when he went to the hospital, he found children dead and others dismembered or injured, and that he saw many body parts and bodies piled on top of each other.
On his way to hospital on Tuesday morning, he saw many people heading to the hospital, thinking it was a safe place, and now all of them have become victims of an apparent war crime, he said.
The representative of the World Health Organization accused all Western leaders who supported Israel's operations in Gaza of involvement in these crimes, stressing that the occupation would not have committed these crimes without this support.
He said that anyone who knows that he will escape judgment will commit war crimes without fear, and that failure to hold those responsible accountable for what happened at the Baptist Hospital means more similar crimes.
Earlier today, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the number of victims of the Israeli shelling that targeted the yard of Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza had risen to 500 martyrs, most of them women and children.