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  6.  » Several killed, injured in Israeli attack on ambulance convoy in Gaza

Alarabiya – Nov 3, 2023

Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV quoted the Gaza health ministry as saying that scores of Palestinians were killed and injured on Friday in Israeli targeting of an ambulance convoy carrying critically wounded people in Gaza, which the health ministry said killed multiple people near the territory’s largest hospital.

A government statement said Israeli forces targeted “a convoy of ambulances which was transporting the wounded” from Gaza City towards Rafah in the south.

The health ministry announced “several citizens were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike at the entrance to Al-Shifa hospital” in Gaza City.

An AFP journalist at the scene saw multiple bodies beside a damaged ambulance.

Al-Shifa hospital is facing severe overcrowding, with a bed occupancy rate of 164 percent according to the World Health Organization.

Some 16 hospitals across Gaza are no longer functioning due to damage from strikes and a lack of fuel, the health ministry said.

The WHO warned Wednesday that the fuel shortage “immediately risks the lives” of the wounded and other patients.

More than 23,500 people have been wounded across Gaza in four weeks of war, the health ministry said, while the death toll has surpassed 9,200.

Around 1,400 people were killed in attacks by Hamas militants in Israel on October 7, sparking the war.

The health ministry spokesman, Ashraf Al-Qudra, earlier said they would send critically injured Palestinians who needed to be urgently transferred for treatment in Egypt from Gaza city and the north to the south.

Israel’s military said it was looking into a report by the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip that scores of Palestinians were killed and wounded in an Israeli strike on an ambulance convoy.

Reuters could not immediately verify the Health Ministry’s report.

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