AN ARCHBISHOP IN the Church of Ireland has said he is outraged at Israel’s attack on Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza on Palm Sunday.

One child was killed and many were injured as a result of the air strike on one of Gaza’s few functioning hospitals.

The Reverend Dr Michael Jackson appealed to everyone in his dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough to pray throughout Holy Week “for those who suffer and for those who serve, for those who die and for those who struggle to live”.

The hospital is supported by the church.

The archbishop, a senior figure in the church, said: “We walk in solidarity and in sadness with the brave souls – staff and patients – who have kept Al Ahli Hospital functioning against the odds for so so long.

“I share their outrage, having experienced their selfless work and worshipped with them in their hospital chapel, at the destruction and desecration of the hospital – a place of care and healing for all in need.

“I appeal for a cessation of violence and warfare in Israel–Palestine and particularly in Gaza.”

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

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

Patients on streets

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz have reiterated 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.

Reverend Dr Michael Jackson said the Easter period is a reminder of Jesus’s story and the empathy that he showed.

“As Christian people worldwide mark the entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday we recollect with thanksgiving how he gathered to himself a new community of the despised and the rejected.

“He himself became despised and rejected – a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”

With reporting by © AFP 2025