RAMALLAH, Nov 20, (Agencies): The Israeli occupation forces bombed the Kuwait school near the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza earlier on Monday in a new act of brutal aggression, said a Palestinian media source. The Palestine News and Info Agency (WAFA) revealed that the Israeli artillery and tanks besieged the Indonesian Hospital and bombed it since the early hours of last evening, adding that the forces fired several shells directly at the Kuwait school, which housed a number of displaced people. The Palestinian agency indicated that the number of martyrs and injured affected by the bombing was yet undetermined due to a telecommunications outage in the north of the Strip. Additionally, the source said that ambulances were unable to reach the school due to the occupation forces' siege on the Indonesian Hospital and its surrounding areas.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces pressed their offensive against Hamas in northern Gaza on Monday, battling militants around a hospital where thousands of patients and displaced people have been sheltering for weeks, raising Palestinian fears of another painful standoff and evacuation of a medical facility. A shell struck the second floor of the Indonesian Hospital, killing at least 12 people, according to a medical worker inside the facility and the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. Both blamed Israeli forces. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military. The advance came a day after the World Health Organization evacuated 31 premature babies from Shifa Hospital. At least 28 were transported to Egypt on Monday. More than 250 critically ill or wounded patients remain stranded at the compound that Israeli forces stormed days ago.

The plight of Gaza’s hospitals is the focus of a battle of narratives over the war’s brutal toll on Palestinian civilians, thousands of whom have been killed or buried in rubble since the conflict was sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 rampage into southern Israel. In the wake of the assault, Israeli leaders vowed to eradicate Hamas, destroy its ability to rule Gaza, and uproot its militant infrastructure. Israel says Hamas uses civilians as human shields and operates a major command hub inside and beneath Shifa, while critics say Israel’s siege and relentless aerial bombardment amount to collective punishment of the territory’s 2.3 million Palestinians. Marwan Abdallah, the medical worker at the Indonesian Hospital, said Israeli tanks were operating less than 200 meters (yards) from the hospital, and that Israeli snipers could be seen on the roofs of nearby buildings. As he spoke over the phone, the sound of gunfire could be heard in the background. Abdallah said the hospital had received dozens of dead and wounded in airstrikes and shelling overnight.