Deaths as Israeli tanks shell Gaza hospital
July 21 - Israeli tanks have shelled a hospital in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least five people and wounding another 50.
Al Jazeera's Stephanie Dekker, reporting from Gaza, said according to early reports the third floor of the al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah had been hit by at least three tank shells.
The hospital is the third to be hit by Israeli tank fire since Israel launched its ground offensive in Gaza four days ago.
She said the scene was an area "where a lot of people had been fleeing to".
"There's extremely heavy shelling going on in that neighbourhood. This is an area you'd think would be relatively safe," she said.
"It's a public hospital, it is run by the government, it was established here before Hamas took over."
A distressed doctor at the scene of the attack told Al Jazeera: "We cannot do anything here for our patients, all the patients, all the injured in the emergency department."
There were no known indications that the hospital was used by armed factions of Hamas.
Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera: "You are allowed to hit targets where their [Hamas] war machine is using to hide rockets."
Basman Elashi, of El Wafa Hospital, another Gaza hospital that was shelled on Thursday, told Al Jazeera that he could hear very heavy shelling from the area near the hospital.
He said the third floor was used for long-term treatment of patients.
"We have no place to hide. No place for the children and the women. They are inhumane. They are acting like an animal; they are targeting every home and family in Gaza," Elashi said.
A distressed doctor at the scene of the attack told Al Jazeera: "We cannot do anything here for our patients, all the patients, all the injured in the emergency department."
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/07/deaths-as-israeli-tanks-shell-gaza-hospital-2014721124111171397.html
Democracy Now this morning was talking to the Norwegian doctor Mads Gilbert, just as the shells started.
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