Israeli Snipers Kill 21 Civilians Outside Gaza Hospital

Israeli snipers have killed at least 21 Palestinians after they opened fire on displaced civilians trying to reach Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah, said on Friday that snipers had surrounded the hospital and were “shooting at every moving object” as people were trying to reach it from two densely populated residential neighborhoods near the facility.

“The area around the hospital is very dangerous, and it has turned into a combat zone,” he said, noting that the hospital is the only place right now in Khan Younis that has some water left.

“Hospitals and other medical facilities are civilian objects that have special protections under international humanitarian law or the laws of war,” Human Rights Watch noted.

Mahmoud said this represents a “new trend of targeted killings” by Israeli snipers, who shoot Palestinians in the streets. People inside the medical facility would also become easy targets by trying to retrieve the bodies.

“Attack drones also targeted a group of young people who gathered on the roof of the hospital. Because of the communications blackout, they were trying to get signals for the internet on their mobile phones so they could communicate with family members,” Mahmoud reported.