Israeli Strike Kills Director of Ambulance Services, Gaza Officials Say
A senior official in charge of coordinating ambulance movements in Gaza was killed by an Israeli strike, the health ministry in the enclave said in a statement on Monday.
The official, Hani al-Jafarawi, the director of ambulance and emergency services in Gaza, was killed in a strike on a health clinic in Gaza City, the ministry said.
The Israeli military didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. It said earlier on Monday that it had killed a man named Muhammad Salah, whom it called a Hamas operative, in Gaza City on Sunday night. It was not clear if the two men were killed in the same strike.
Hundreds of health care workers in Gaza have been killed by Israel’s pulverizing bombing campaign or been caught in the middle of ground combat between the Israeli military and Hamas, according to the ministry.
In an interview, Yousef Abu al-Rish, the deputy minister of the health ministry, said Mr. Jafarawi had relocated to a clinic in Gaza City months ago after an Israeli raid left Al-Shifa Hospital, his previous base of operations, in ruins.
Mr. Abu al-Rish, the most senior health ministry official in Gaza, said Mr. Jafarawi coordinated the transfer of wounded people from the field to hospitals, as well as between hospitals. He had been responsible for doing that work across Gaza, but after Israeli forces divided the enclave in half, he focused on the northern part of the territory.
Mr. Abu al-Rish said a replacement would be named, but predicted that the person would not have the same expertise and contacts.
On Monday, the Israeli military said the Air Force had killed Mr. Salah, the Hamas militant, in Gaza City. It said he was “part of a project to develop strategic weaponry for the Hamas terrorist organization.”
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of exploiting hospital grounds and other civilian infrastructure for military purposes. The militant group has denied the allegation, even though in November the Israeli military revealed a stone-and-concrete tunnel shaft below Al-Shifa. At the time, the health ministry said the military’s raid put the hospital out of service.
