Israel’s order to evacuate Gaza hospital ‘nearly impossible’ to be obeyed, medics say via Reuters

Written by Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) – Israel ordered the closure and evacuation on Sunday of one of the last partially functioning hospitals in the besieged northern outskirts of the Gaza Strip, forcing medics to search for a way to bring in hundreds of patients and staff. security.

The head of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, Husam Abu Safiya, told Reuters by text message that compliance with the order to close was “very close” because there were not enough ambulances to evacuate patients.

“Right now we have nearly 400 residents inside the hospital, including children in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators. We will not be able to evacuate these patients safely without help, equipment and time,” said Abu Safiya.

“We are sending this message under a powerful bomb and targeting the fuel tanks, which if hit will cause a huge explosion and kill many people inside,” he said.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on Abu Safiya’s statement. It says that on Friday it sent fuel and food to this hospital and helped to evacuate more than 100 patients and caregivers to other hospitals in Gaza, some in collaboration with the Red Cross, so that they could be safe.

The hospital is one of the few still partially functional on the northern outskirts of Gaza, an area that came under heavy pressure from Israeli forces for nearly three months in one of the most punishing operations of the 14-month-old war.

Abu Safiya said the soldiers ordered the patients and staff to be taken to another hospital where the conditions were worse. Pictures from inside the hospital show patients in beds crammed into corridors to avoid windows. Reuters could not immediately confirm those images.

Israel says its operations in three communities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip – Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia – are targeting Hamas terrorists. The Palestinians accuse Israel of wanting to completely depopulate the area to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.

FIGHTING IN NEARBY CARS

Hamas released a video on Sunday that it claimed was filmed in northern Gaza. It showed fighters stationed in blown-up buildings and piles of rubble, dressed in civilian clothes and firing explosives at Israeli forces.

The Israeli military said on Sunday that the forces operating in Beit Hanoun attacked Hamas terrorists and infrastructure. Hamas and its affiliated Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the injuries to Israeli soldiers.

Separately, Israel allowed the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, a Latin patriarch, to enter Gaza on Sunday, according to a statement on the website of the Latin Patriarchate and COGAT, an Israeli defense organization that works with the Palestinians, after Pope Francis declared on Saturday that the patriarch. he was not allowed to enter.

Elsewhere, Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 29 Palestinians, eight of them – including children – at a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City, medics said.

Two children were killed in another airstrike in an Israeli-designated area south of Gaza, killing at least five, health officials said.

In both of those incidents, the Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas terrorists operating in those areas and had taken precautions to reduce the risk of civilian casualties. Hamas denies that it operates among civilians.

Mediators have stepped up efforts in recent weeks to bring peace to Gaza after months of intense negotiations.

Israel launched an offensive in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting more than 250 people, according to Israeli figures. About half of the 100 hostages still held are believed to be alive.

Authorities in Gaza say the Israeli campaign has killed more than 45,200 Palestinians. Most of the 2.3 million people have been displaced and much of the coastal areas are in ruins.

(Reporting and writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah and Emily Rose and Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Peter Graff and Ros Russell)