Israel deliberately targets hospitals and medical centers   ( File photo )

By Hind Khoudary / Al Jazeera correspondent  /  Reporting from Deir el-Balah, Gaza

Deir el-Balah, May 20 (RHC)-- Powerful explosions were heard in Khan Younis on Monday morning as Israeli warplanes filled the skies, with drones and assault helicopters raining down bombs on civilian neighborhoods.

The besieged and starving people of Khan Younis say it feels like doomsday.

Loads of dead and wounded people, including women and children, were rushed to the city’s barely functioning medical centres.  They include the Nasser Medical Complex, which suffered some of the fierce bombing over recent days. The attacks caused widespread destruction across the hospital’s different facilities, including oxygen lines, the pharmaceutical laboratory and the warehouse storing medical supplies.

Another strike hit a school in Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the Strip, where dozens of people were sheltering.

In northern Gaza, the Indonesian Hospital is under siege by the Israeli military, with patients unable to enter or get out.

The war on hospitals has been ongoing since the beginning, but has now reached unprecedented levels.

Aside from the Nasser and Indonesian hospitals, two other major hospitals in Gaza, the European and al-Awda, have been bombed and largely put out of service.

The hospitals are flooding with people.  There’s little space to walk inside Al-Aqsa Hospital. Some are seeking treatment after being injured by Israeli bombardment. Others are seeking help with chronic diseases or looking for shelter.

As the Israeli army expands its ground offensive, Israeli leaders say they will allow limited amounts of humanitarian aid into the Strip.  But those in charge of relief say it’s too little and too late.

For the people of Gaza, a little food or a temporary ceasefire isn’t enough to lift their suffering – what they want is an end to the genocide.

[ SOURCE:  AL JAZEERA and AFP ]