Hundreds of people evacuated on Saturday Gaza’s largest hospital, where more than 2,000 patients, doctors and refugees were trapped by the war between Hamas and Israel in Palestinian territory, where an airstrike killed 26 people overnight.
• Also read: Israeli soldiers order evacuation of Gaza’s Al-Chifa hospital ‘within an hour’
On the 43rd day of the war, at least 2,300 patients, nurses and displaced people were in Al-Chifa Hospital, a vast complex in western Gaza City, according to the UN, and international concern over their fate is growing.
They left the hospital on foot, according to an AFP journalist at the scene, but medical officials stressed that 120 patients were still present and unable to move. The Hamas Ministry of Health said that among them were premature babies.
These columns of displaced people, medical personnel and patients, some of whom were injured and very weak, made their way to Salaheddine Street, which leads to the south of Gaza, where the Israeli army is directing the population to seek refuge.
Israeli soldiers, conducting a raid on Al-Chifa Hospital for the fourth day in a row, ordered the evacuation “within an hour” over a loudspeaker on Saturday morning.
Careful search
The Israeli army, whose tanks surround the hospital, is conducting a “building by building” search of the complex, which is said to contain a Hamas hideout, notably installed in a network of underground tunnels. The Palestinian Islamist movement categorically rejects these allegations and accuses Israel of using them as a pretext for attacks on the hospital.
Soldiers also interview people inside the facility.
The electricity has stopped working there for several days, and department heads report that several dozen patients have died “because vital medical equipment stopped working due to the power outage.”
Since Hamas carried out an unprecedented attack on Israeli soil on October 7, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and kidnapped along with other armed groups, retaliatory attacks on the Gaza Strip have continued. According to the Israeli authorities, there were around 240 people.
Talks about the release of the hostages are being held with Qatari mediation, but Israel rejects any ceasefire until all hostages are released.
The bodies of two female hostages, including a 19-year-old soldier, Noa Marciano, were found this week in buildings near Al-Chifa Hospital. The army also lost 51 soldiers killed in fighting in Gaza.
According to the Hamas Health Ministry, at least 12,000 Palestinian civilians, including 5,000 children, were killed in Israeli strikes.
According to the director of Nasser Hospital in this southern Gaza city, 26 people were killed and 23 were seriously injured in a strike against three buildings in Khan Younes on Friday night.
“I was sleeping and we were surprised by the attack, at least 20 bombs were dropped,” Imed al-Moubacher, 45, told AFP.
“Suddenly the house caught fire, I had gravel in my mouth and immediately looked for my husband and daughters,” added his wife Sabrine Moussa.
“I saw human remains everywhere and screamed for help,” she said, adding that her brother was killed in an attack on the family home in early November.
“Unjustified”
Israel, which has vowed to “destroy” Hamas, has been carrying out land operations in parallel with the bombings since October 27. They are concentrated in the north of the territory, in Gaza City, which has been turned into a field of ruins, and around hospitals. The army accuses Hamas of using them as bases and using the sick as “human shields.”
The area has been under a “complete siege” since October 9 by Israel, which has cut off supplies of food, water, electricity and medicine through the Rafah crossing on the southern Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt. According to Hamas, 24 of the 35 hospitals in the Gaza Strip have ceased operations.
Given the shortages, there is “an imminent risk of famine” for the population, warned the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus criticized the “increasingly unjustified scale of the Israeli response.” He stressed that his agency was “impartial (..) like the rest of the United Nations system.”
According to the United Nations, more than two-thirds of Gaza’s 2.4 million residents have been displaced by the war. Most fled south with the minimum they had and survived the oncoming cold.
The fuel comes in
At the request of the United States, Israel on Friday authorized the daily entry of two tank trucks into the Gaza Strip. According to the authority of the Palestinian part of the terminal, a first shipment of 17,000 liters of fuel arrived at the Rafah terminal in the evening to restart the power generators of hospitals and telecommunications networks.
Israel has so far refused to allow the fuel to pass, saying it could benefit the military activities of Hamas, which seized power in Gaza in 2007 and is designated a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel.
However, according to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), these shipments represent only a small portion of the amount of fuel, or 50 trucks, that entered the Gaza Strip daily before the war began.
That agency announced on Friday that it would soon no longer be able to coordinate the distribution of humanitarian aid in Gaza due to the communications disruption.
According to Unrwa, 70% of the population in the south of the territory does not have access to drinking water, where sewers flow into the streets and sewage treatment plants no longer function due to a lack of fuel.
According to AFP images, injured Palestinian children were able to leave Gaza via Rafah on Saturday morning to be evacuated to hospitals in the United Arab Emirates.
Tensions in the West Bank
Tensions are also high in the West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, where around 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers since October 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Five fighters from Fatah, the movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, were killed early Saturday in a very rare airstrike on the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, which the Palestinian Red Crescent and sources said is known for harboring young fighters various armed groups within Fatah.
In Jenin, another stronghold of Palestinian armed movements, the Israeli army announced Friday that it had killed “five terrorists.” Hamas, for its part, mentioned the deaths of three of its fighters. In Hebron, two Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.