Only a small medical team remained at the region’s largest hospital to care for those unable to travel. Israel began bombing parts of southern Gaza and targets in Lebanon.
Health officials said patients, staff and refugees left the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital on Saturday, leaving only a skeleton crew to care for those too sick to move and for Israeli forces who had occupied the facility earlier in the week had taken over.
The exodus from the hospital in Gaza City coincides with the restoration of internet and phone service in the enclave after an outage that forced the United Nations to suspend the delivery of crucial humanitarian aid because it was not in were able to coordinate convoys.
Israel continued to expand its offensive in Gaza City and the army warned in an Arabic message on social media that residents of two neighborhoods to the east and north, as well as the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, should leave the area for their safety.
Military activities would be paused briefly to allow their departure, he added. Earlier this week, Israel’s Defense Ministry reported that its troops had completed the operation in the west of the city.
Attacks in the south
The shelling continued in the southern strip, where an Israeli airstrike hit a residential building on the outskirts of Khan Younis, killing at least 26 Palestinians, according to a doctor at the hospital where the bodies were taken.
The army searched Shifa Hospital for evidence of the Hamas command center, which Israeli authorities say is located beneath the hospital complex – which the insurgent group and the center’s staff deny – and summoned thousands of people still in the complex to leave the complex.
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The military authorities said this Saturday that the director of the center had asked for help so that those who wanted to leave the center could do so in a safe way. The military said no evacuation had been ordered and that medical personnel could stay to care for patients who could not be transported.
However, Medhat Abbas, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled health ministry in the Gaza Strip, noted that the army had ordered the evacuation of the facilities and given staff an hour to remove people.
Later, when it looked like the evacuation was almost complete, Ahmed Mokhallalati, a doctor in Shifa, said on social media that there were about 120 patients unable to leave, including some in intensive care and premature babies, and that he and five other doctors stayed to treat her.
It was not immediately clear where those who evacuated the center had gone, as 25 of the area’s hospitals were not functioning due to fuel shortages, damage and other problems and another 11 were partially operational, according to the World Health Organization. Health.
Israel has indicated that it plans to expand its campaign south while continuing operations in the north.
In Khan Yunis, the attack early Saturday hit Hamad City, a middle-class housing development built in recent years with Qatari funding. In addition to the 26 deaths, 20 other people were injured, said Dr. Nehad Taeima from Nasser Hospital.
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The war, now in its seventh week, was sparked by the deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which the insurgents killed more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 240 men, women and children hostage took.
More than 11,500 Palestinians have died since the conflict began. Another 2,700 are missing and are believed to be buried under the rubble. The official count does not distinguish between civilian and combat casualties, but more than two-thirds of the dead were women and children, and Israel claims it has killed thousands of militants.
The United Nations warned that Gaza’s 2.3 million people are suffering from severe shortages of food and water, but it was not immediately clear whether the Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA would be able to resume aid deliveries, which were forced to stop on Friday.
Drone attack in Lebanon
According to the National News Agency, an Israeli drone fired two missiles at an aluminum factory outside the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh early Saturday, causing a fire and extensive damage. No injuries were initially reported.
The Israeli attack near the town of Toul is the first in the region since the 34-day war between Israel and the Lebanese insurgent group Hezbollah in 2006 and comes far from the border.
Firefighters and ambulances rushed to the area, said the authority, which reported no injuries in the incident, which occurred around dawn.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the incident, but said it was attacking Hezbollah targets and would provide more details later.
Separately, the Israeli military said on Saturday that its aircraft had struck an insurgent hideout in an urban refugee camp in Balata in the occupied West Bank. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service, five Palestinians were killed in the attack.
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