Israel’s military on Saturday killed two Palestinians in Gaza and destroyed two warehouses near a hospital that were said to be storing medicine in separate strikes, amid uncertainty over whether Israel has accepted a deal reached with Hamas over the group’s disarmament.
Palestinian health officials said two Palestinians were killed in the Sheikh Radwan area of Gaza City in central Gaza in an Israeli air strike. A military spokesperson said those targeted were Hamas militants but declined to provide further details.
In an earlier incident, an Israeli air strike destroyed two warehouses that were used to store medicine by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in southern Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said in a statement.
Several hours after the strike, the Israeli military said it had struck a Hamas hideout near the hospital which the group used to store weapons. Other sites in Gaza that it said were used by Hamas to store arms were also struck, a military statement said.
The military said the strikes were directed by the Shin Bet intelligence agency. It did not disclose any evidence to support the claim that Hamas was storing weapons at any of the sites.
Reuters footage of the Deir al-Balah strike showed a crater several metres wide marking the site of the explosion, with debris strewn across the area, including what appeared to be medical supplies, close to a densely packed tent encampment.
Two other warehouses storing medicine and the hospital’s outpatient clinic were damaged in the strike, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. There were no immediate reports of any injuries.
The hospital said the warehouses had stored essential medical supplies used to treat kidney failure patients undergoing dialysis, along with other materials like gauze used in wound care and routine treatment.
“The Israeli occupation has committed a heinous crime,” Khalil al-Daqran, a doctor at the hospital, said of the strike.
