Israeli forces besieged two more Gaza hospitals on Sunday, pinning down medical teams under heavy gunfire and forcing the evacuation from one hospital of most patients and displaced people sheltering there, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
Israeli forces say hospitals in the Gaza Strip where war has been raging for over five months have frequently been used as strongholds of Hamas militants harbouring bases and weapons. Hamas and medical staff deny this.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of its staff was killed when Israeli tanks suddenly pushed back into areas around Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis, amid shelling and gunfire.
Israeli armoured forces sealed off Al-Amal Hospital and carried out extensive bulldozing operations in its vicinity, the Red Crescent said in a statement, adding: “All of our teams are in extreme danger at the moment and are completely immobilised.”
It said Israeli forces demanded the complete evacuation of staff, patients and displaced people from Al-Amal and fired smoke bombs into the area to try to push out its occupants.
Hours later, the Red Crescent said all patients who could be moved as well as displaced people who found refuge from fighting in the hospital compound had been evacuated westwards to Al Mawasi, a coastal beach settlement.
Earlier, the Red Crescent said a displaced Palestinian was killed inside the hospital premises by Israeli gunfire.
The Israeli military said its forces were hitting “infrastructure” in Khan Younis used as lairs for numerous militants. Hamas denies using hospitals for military ends and accuses Israel of war crimes against civilian targets.
Khan Younis residents said Israeli forces had also advanced and formed a cordon around Nasser Hospital in western Khan Younis under cover of heavy fire from the air and ground.
AL SHIFA RAID NETS HUNDREDS OF MILITANTS, ISRAEL SAYS
Separately, the Israeli military said it had captured 480 militants in a continuing week-long raid into the Palestinian enclave’s largest hospital, Al Shifa, in Gaza City in the north of the densely populated strip.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said dozens of patients and medical staffers had been detained by Israeli forces at Al Shifa. The Hamas-run government media office said Israeli forces had killed five Palestinian doctors.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those reports. It said earlier that it had killed over 170 gunmen in the raid, which the Palestinian Health Ministry said had also caused the deaths of five patients.
Al Shifa is one of the few healthcare facilities even partially operational in north Gaza, and – like others – had also been housing some of the nearly 2 million civilians – over 80% of Gaza’s population – displaced by the war.
Reuters has been unable to access Gaza’s contested hospital areas and verify accounts by either side.
In Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost town on the Egyptian border town that has become the last refuge for half of Gaza’s uprooted population, an Israeli air strike on a house killed seven people, health officials said.
At least 32,226 Palestinians have been killed, among them 84 in the past 24 hours, and 74,518 injured in Israel’s air and ground offensive into the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, its health ministry said in a Sunday update.
The war was triggered when Hamas-led Islamist militants broke through the border fence into southern Israel in a shock rampage on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Concerted mediation by Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States has so far failed to secure a Hamas-Israel ceasefire, prisoner releases and unfettered aid to Gaza civilians at risk of famine, with each sides sticking to core demands.
REUTERS
