Amid ongoing conflict, Israeli forces are advancing towards Gaza hospitals, including al-Shifa. The military has requested medical personnel to evacuate all patients.
The thunder-like sound of explosions rang through the night in heavy fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces near Gaza’s biggest hospital, al-Shifa, AFP correspondents at the scene said. Hamas and the hospital director said a strike on the key health facility on Friday killed 13 people. They accused Israel of being responsible, a claim that was impossible to verify.
Information from Gaza indicates that the Israeli army is encircling three hospitals, and there are reports of the communication network being disrupted at al-Shifa Hospital, according to Haaretz.
The Israeli army stated that it notified the director of al-Shifa Hospital that the military classifies the building as located in a combat zone, stressing the need to evacuate all patients.
Aid agency Doctors Without Borders said it was “extremely concerned” about the safety of patients and medical staff at al-Shifa hospital.
Twenty of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are “no longer functioning,” the UN’s humanitarian agency said.
Al-Shifa Hospital halted operations due to fuel depletion, as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry.
Israel has denied targeting hospitals and its army has accused Hamas of using the medical facilities as command centers and hideouts, a charge the Palestinian militant group denies.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Israel had the right to defend itself after last month’s Hamas attacks. But Macron told the BBC that civilians were dying as a result of Israel’s air and expanding ground campaign.
The Gaza health ministry says Israeli fighting has killed more than 11,000 people, mostly civilians and many of them children, figures that cannot be independently verified.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also expressed concern over the civilian toll.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in response to Macron’s comments that Hamas, not Israel, was to blame for the civilian deaths.
Palestinians reported strikes or sniper fire at two hospitals and a school in Gaza on Friday.
After five weeks of conflict, the Gazan health system is “on its knees,” the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told the UN Security Council.
Gabriela De La Cruz, with AFP
