Palestinian Toddler Critically Wounded in West Bank, Israeli Military Says Shooting Unintentional

Israeli soldiers search in the West Bank village of Qafin for the suspected gunmen who shot and killed an Israeli civilian near the entrance to a Jewish settlement of Hermesh, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Israeli soldiers search in the West Bank village of Qafin for the suspected gunmen who shot and killed an Israeli civilian near the entrance to a Jewish settlement of Hermesh, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
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Palestinian Toddler Critically Wounded in West Bank, Israeli Military Says Shooting Unintentional

Israeli soldiers search in the West Bank village of Qafin for the suspected gunmen who shot and killed an Israeli civilian near the entrance to a Jewish settlement of Hermesh, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Israeli soldiers search in the West Bank village of Qafin for the suspected gunmen who shot and killed an Israeli civilian near the entrance to a Jewish settlement of Hermesh, Tuesday, May 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)

A 3-year-old Palestinian boy was in critical condition at an Israeli hospital Friday morning after being shot by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank. The army opened an investigation into what it said was an unintentional shooting.In a statement, the military said that gunmen opened fire late Thursday toward the West Bank settlement of Neve Tzuf. It said soldiers at a guard post returned fire.Moments later, Israeli medics received reports that a Palestinian man and the child had been badly wounded. The man was rushed to a Palestinian hospital, while the baby, after being resuscitated by Israeli medics, was airlifted to Israel's Sheba Hospital. The hospital said the boy was in critical condition.The military released a grainy video showing what it said were the gunmen firing toward the settlement and said that it was searching for them.But it said the incident was being reviewed, saying “it regrets harm to noncombatants” and that it does “everything in its power to prevent such incidents.”The shooting was the latest bloodshed in a more than yearlong surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. That fighting has picked up since Israel's new far-right government took office in late December.Nearly 120 Palestinians have been killed in the two areas this year, with nearly half of them members of armed groups, according to an Associated Press tally. The military says the number of militants is much higher. But stone-throwing youths and people uninvolved in violence have also been killed.Meanwhile, Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis in those areas have killed at least 21 people.Israel captured the West Bank and east Jerusalem, along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Palestinians seek these territories for a future state.Some 700,000 Israelis now live in settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Most of the international community considers these settlements illegal or obstacles to peace.



WHO Says Child Dies After Israel Strike Hits Gaza Hospital 

Palestinians inspect the damage after two Israeli missiles hit a building inside the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, shortly after patients were evacuated following a call from someone who identified himself with Israeli security, in Gaza City, April 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the damage after two Israeli missiles hit a building inside the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, shortly after patients were evacuated following a call from someone who identified himself with Israeli security, in Gaza City, April 13, 2025. (Reuters)
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WHO Says Child Dies After Israel Strike Hits Gaza Hospital 

Palestinians inspect the damage after two Israeli missiles hit a building inside the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, shortly after patients were evacuated following a call from someone who identified himself with Israeli security, in Gaza City, April 13, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the damage after two Israeli missiles hit a building inside the Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital, shortly after patients were evacuated following a call from someone who identified himself with Israeli security, in Gaza City, April 13, 2025. (Reuters)

An Israeli air strike Sunday hit one of Gaza's few functioning hospitals, resulting in the death of a child according to the World Health Organization, as Israel warned it would expand its offensive if Hamas does not release hostages.

Since the outbreak of war, tens of thousands of Gazans have sought refuge in hospitals, many of which have suffered severe damage in the ongoing hostilities.

"A child died due to disruption of care" at the Al-Ahli Hospital in northern Gaza after a strike, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

"The emergency room, laboratory, emergency room X-ray machines and the pharmacy were destroyed," he added. "The hospital was forced to move 50 patients to other hospitals. 40 critical patients couldn't be moved."

The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas "command and control center" at the hospital, a claim the Palestinian group denied.

Gaza's civil defense agency said the strike came "minutes after the (Israeli) army's warning to evacuate".

Israel's foreign ministry said there was "no medical activity taking place" in the hospital building hit by a "precise strike".

"There were no civilian casualties as a result of the strike," it added on X.

AFP photographs showed massive slabs of concrete and twisted metal scattered across the site after the strike.

The blast left a gaping hole in one of the hospital's buildings, with iron doors torn from their hinges.

Another air strike Sunday on a vehicle in the city of Deir al-Balah killed seven people including six brothers, the civil defense agency said.

- Patients on streets -

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz reiterated Sunday that the military would expand its offensive if Hamas "persists in its refusal" to free the remaining hostages.

"Gaza will become smaller and more isolated, and more of its residents will be forced to evacuate from the combat zones," he said, adding that hundreds of thousands had already evacuated.

Patients, relatives and medical personnel found themselves stranded in the streets after the strike on Al-Ahli hospital.

Naela Imad, 42, had been sheltering at the hospital but had to rush out of the complex.

"Just as we reached the hospital gate, they bombed it. It was a massive explosion," she told AFP.

"Now, me and my children are out on the street... The hospital was our last refuge."

Hamas condemned what it described as a "savage crime" committed by Israel.

Qatar, which helped mediate a fragile ceasefire between the warring parties that fell apart last month, denounced it as "a heinous crime", as did Saudi Arabia.

Also on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for advocating a Palestinian state.

"President Macron is gravely mistaken in continuing to promote the idea of a Palestinian state in the heart of our land -- a state whose sole aspiration is the destruction of Israel," Netanyahu said in a statement.

Macron, in an interview to France 5 this week, stated that France could take the step at a UN conference in New York in June, saying he hoped this would trigger a reciprocal recognition of Israel by Arab countries.

- Hospitals targeted -

Hospitals, protected under international humanitarian law, have repeatedly been hit by Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war after Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.

Al-Ahli was heavily damaged by an explosion in its car park on October 17, 2023 that caused multiple fatalities.

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy urged Israel on Sunday to halt the "deplorable attacks" on hospitals.

Last month, Israeli forces opened fire on ambulances in Gaza, killing 15 medics and rescuers in an attack that sparked international condemnation.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Sunday that a medic who had been missing since the attack, Asaad al-Nsasrah, was "being held by Israeli authorities".

The Gaza war broke out after Hamas's October 2023 attack on Israel which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Gaza's health ministry said Sunday that at least 1,574 Palestinians had been killed since March 18 when the ceasefire collapsed, taking the overall death toll since the war began to 50,944.

The ceasefire had largely put a halt to the fighting in Gaza for two months, but Israel restarted intense strikes in mid-March, with Palestinian fighters resuming rocket fire from the territory days later.

The Israeli military said Sunday that it intercepted a projectile launched from Gaza. Later on Sunday, it said it had also intercepted a missile launched from Yemen.

Yemen's Iran-backed Houthi militias, who say they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza, said they had fired two ballistic missiles on Israel, including one that targeted Ben Gurion airport.