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Dozens of Palestinians were reportedly killed or wounded on November 3 afternoon when the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) targeted an ambulance convoy near the al-Shifa hospital in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
A convoy of ambulances was transporting critically wounded patients from the al-Shifa Hospital to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt when it was targeted in an Israeli attack, according to an initial statement by Ashraf al-Qudra, a spokesman for the health ministry in Gaza, which is ruled by the Hamas Movement.
Al-Qudsa later said that dozens are feared dead in the attack on the ambulances, adding that hundreds are believed to be wounded.
“If no safe passage is provided for the delivery of fuel and medical supplies and the departure of victims, we will continue to lose more lives. We are helpless here,” the spokesman said.
Later, the IDF targeted the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital, which is also located in northern Gaza. According to preliminary information, dozens of Palestinains were killed or wounded in the attack.
The health ministry in Gaza announced just before the attacks that At least 9,257 Palestinians, including 3,826 children and 2,405 women, have been killed in Israeli strikes since the war broke out on October 7. The death toll will likely rise significantly before the end of the day as a result of the recent attacks on hospitals in the Strip.
Meanwhile, the IDF continues ground operations in northern Gaza. In a statement released in the afternoon, the IDF said that its troops killed “numerous” fighters in the Strip in the last few hours, as the ground offensive progressed.
The IDF said that ground forces identified a cell coming out of a tunnel, and directed a warplane to strike them. In another engagement, numerous fighters came out of a tunnel inside a building and opened fire at Israeli troops who returned fire, killing several of them.
Separately, the IDF announced that another soldier was killed during clashes in Gaza, which raises the number of Israeli troops killed in the group operation to 25.
The IDF also publishes footage showing members of the Air Force’s elite helicopter-borne search and rescue Unit 669 extracting wounded soldiers from inside Gaza Strip amid Israel’s ground offensive.
Unit 669 is made up of rescue specialists, combat medics and helicopter pilots. According to the IDF, since the war broke out, the unit has carried out 150 separate rescue operations — including some while under fire — taking some 260 injured people to hospitals.
The IDF is now working to link its advancing troops along the beach with the units that encircled Gaza city from the south. Once this task is completed, it will likely begin to storm Gaza City and nearby urban centers. Attempts to broker a temporary ceasefire by the United States and other sides have apparently failed, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected any such proposal.
