Hundreds of people fled Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital on foot on Saturday after its director said that the Israeli army ordered the hospital’s evacuation. Israel’s army denied this claim.
Hundreds of people evacuated Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital on foot on Saturday after the hospital director claimed that the Israeli army ordered the building’s evacuation. However, the Israeli army denied ordering the evacuation. In a statement, the army declared that it “acceded to the request of the director of the Al-Shifa Hospital to enable additional Gazans who were in the hospital, and would like to evacuate, to do so.”
The Hamas-run health ministry stated that 120 wounded were still at the facility, along with an unspecified number of premature babies, adding that it was in touch with the Red Cross regarding the infants.
Officials said a few medical staff stayed behind to care for those who could not be moved.
Columns of sick and injured patients, some of them amputees, displaced people, doctors, and nurses, made their way toward the seafront.
The United Nations estimated that 2,300 patients, staff, and displaced Palestinians were sheltering at Al-Shifa before Israeli troops entered the hospital on Wednesday.
Israel accuses Hamas of staging attacks from hideouts under the sprawling health complex, and its troops are combing buildings for evidence to back their claims.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that governs Gaza and has an armed wing, has consistently denied using hospitals as bases for combatants.
Hamas health officials say dozens of patients have died at the hospital owing to blackouts due to fuel shortages caused by intense combat in northern Gaza.
Katrine Dige Houmøller, with AFP
