PNN – Following the discovery of remnants from two American-made guided bombs at the site of an attack on the surgical ward of Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip, calls to halt arms exports to the Israeli regime have resurfaced.
According to the report of Pakistan News Network citing the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi, the use of U.S.-manufactured bombs in an attack on Nasser Hospital—located in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip—has prompted renewed international demands for an arms embargo against the Zionist regime.
The attack, which took place near midnight, resulted in the deaths of six Palestinians and left 28 others wounded, including both doctors and patients.
Dylan Williams, Vice President for Government Affairs at the Center for International Policy, responded to the attack by calling for an “arms embargo now”—a demand that reflects growing calls to halt U.S. military support for Israel, amid the continued targeting of medical facilities and the deaths of civilians and healthcare workers.
Trevor Ball, an analyst at the organization Conflict Armament Research, told The New York Times that images and videos from the blast site show the remnants of two U.S.-made, 250-pound precision-guided aerial bombs.
Citing the scale of Washington’s military support for Israel, the outlet Common Dreams reported—based on data from the Council on Foreign Relations—that legislation enacted since October 2023 has provided the regime with at least $16.3 billion in direct military aid, in addition to the $3.8 billion that its armed forces receive from the United States annually.
The outlet further noted that the administrations of both current U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have defended Israel’s war in Gaza—even as hospitals, journalists, aid workers, and children have come under attack—with Tel Aviv repeatedly justifying the bombing of medical facilities by claiming that Hamas uses these sites for military purposes.
Ayman Abu Obeid, a surgeon who was himself wounded in the attack, told The Guardian that the Israeli military provided no prior warning to evacuate patients and medical staff.
According to him, all patients in the surgical ward were awaiting surgery, and the bombardment occurred at a time when they would have been asleep. Describing the scenes of destruction and injury inside the hospital, the doctor recounted that the blast triggered thick smoke and fires in the rooms, accompanied by the cries and moans of the wounded; several medical staff members were also struck by shrapnel in various parts of their bodies.
Hadja Lahbib, the European Commissioner for Equality and Crisis Management, emphasized that hospitals are protected under international humanitarian law and must not be military targets; she called for a prompt, independent, and impartial investigation to ensure accountability and the protection of civilians.
Meanwhile, Common Dreams highlighted the death of Rizq Abu Sha’ira, a 52-year-old surgeon who appeared in the documentary American Doctor, which covers the work of American physicians in Gaza. Feroze Sidhwa, an American surgeon featured in the film, stated that Abu Sha’ira was killed while working at the hospital, following the bombing of the surgical recovery room at the Nasser Medical Complex. This incident once again underscores the responsibility of the U.S. government—through its military support for Israel—for the killing of doctors and children in Palestine and elsewhere; a government that, according to Sidhwa, has no right to compel Americans to finance such carnage.