• Kingdom categorically rejected Sunday’s attack on the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital and said it constituted a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms

Arab News

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia on Sunday condemned Israel after two Israeli missiles hit a major Gaza hospital, knocking out the emergency department.

The Kingdom categorically rejected Sunday’s attack on the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital and said it constituted a flagrant violation of all international laws and norms, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The Kingdom called on the international community to assume its responsibility to halt repeated violations against civilians, warning of the collapse of Gaza’s health system as a result of continued Israeli violations of all international laws and norms.

Later on Sunday, the head of the World Health Organization said that a child died because of the air strike on the hospital.

“A child died due to disruption of care,” WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X. “The emergency room, laboratory, emergency room X-ray machines and the pharmacy were destroyed,” he added, quoting information from the director of the hospital.

“The hospital was forced to move 50 patients to other hospitals. 40 critical patients couldn’t be moved,” he said. “Hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law. Attacks on health care must stop.”

Al-Ahli Hospital is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, which condemned the attack, saying in a statement it occurred on “Palm Sunday, the start of the Holy Week, the most sacred week of the Christian year.”