Hundreds of patients remain trapped in several hospitals in northern Gaza – with at least 400 in Al-Quds – and cannot travel to the south of the Strip, said the head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees ( UNRWA, in its acronym in English), John White.
The warning comes after Israel ordered the evacuation of the Al-Quds hospital, in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, in Gaza City, north of the Strip, and that the workers at this center, as well as the Palestinian Red Crescent, will report “Violent attacks and bombings very close to the hospital” since Sunday afternoon.
“There was very intense shelling around the hospital,” Marwan Jilani, director general of the International Federation of Red Cross Societies, told BBC News.
He added that a rocket fell “just a few meters away” from the Al-Quds hospital, damaging windows and forcing people taking shelter in that part of the building to move to another area.
The Palestinian Red Crescent estimates that there are 400 patients in that hospital, many of them in intensive care.
“Evacuating them means killing them,” they warned.
The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said this was “deeply worrying”.
“We reiterate: it is impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives. According to International Humanitarian Law, health care must always be protected”, he wrote on his X account, formerly known as Twitter.
Dr. Bashar Murad, director of the hospital, said that in addition to the patients, there are at least 12,000 displaced people (internally displaced persons) sheltered in the hospital, 70 percent of them children and women.
A long night in northern Gaza
According to the BBC’s Gaza correspondent, Rushdi Abualouf, numerous airstrikes hit the area around the Al-Quds hospital throughout Sunday. This damaged most nearby buildings and a residential tower.
“Everyone, especially the children, is terrified,” A doctor at the Al-Quds hospital who preferred to remain anonymous told the BBC.
“There is heavy shelling very close to the hospital. “They bombed the (residential) towers behind the hospital,” said this doctor.
The BBC also received a voice note from an anonymous Gaza resident: “They have bombed two residential towers and now they are bombing the third. God protect us.”
“Some of the attacks fell about 10 meters from the exterior doors of the hospital and affected parts of the building where thousands of civilians have sought refuge.”Abalouf said.
Shops in the area were also destroyed, as were all roads leading to the hospital.
He also reported that medical teams distributed masks to help people protect themselves from the huge amounts of dust and smoke entering the Al-Quds hospital.
Fear in other hospitals
There is also Concern for patients and staff at another Gaza City hospital, Al Shifawhere the head of surgery has described the situation as “catastrophic.”
Al Shifa hospital is the largest of its kind in Gaza and is located in the heart of the city.
He Israel’s military said Hamas’ main base of operations It is located under the premises of Al Shifa hospital.
Hamas rejects that claim and some of the doctors working there have called for the hospital to be protected.
On Sunday, the Associated Press reported that Israeli warplanes had carried out strikes overnight near the hospital, citing Gaza City residents.
On Saturday, people in the area told the BBC’s Gaza correspondent Rushdi Abualouf that nearby roads had been attacked.
Some 55,000 internally displaced people are now “occupying every square meter” of this Gaza City medical center, Dr. Marwan Abu Saada said in a voice note to the BBC, recorded on Sunday afternoon.
Abu Saada said that the hospital was “overflowing” and that patients were “invading” its hallways as more arrived.
Although about 100 patients were transferred from this center over the weekend, he explains that it is insufficient. The number of income is greater than those that can go out.
“We receive many, many cases. Every half hour we receive a large number of wounded.”
Added to this situation is the shortage of all types of medical supplies, from anesthetics to analgesics or antibiotics.
“This makes the situation very difficult. We can’t do more,” she added.
Israel’s change of strategy
“Since yesterday (Sunday the 29th), there appear to be fewer airstrikes in southern Gaza than before. So It seems that Israel wants to focus the operation in the north and in Gaza Citywhere they now have tanks from four different directions,” Abualouf explained.
This Monday the sighting of an Israeli tank was reported on the main road leading from the north to the south of the area, near Gaza City and the road that thousands of people are using to escape from the north. It is the deepest into the area that Israeli forces have been seen since the start of operations.
“It is certainly a sign that Israel’s noose around Gaza City is beginning to tighten,” Paul Adams, the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent in Jerusalem, had noted before he reported the sighting of the tank.
“It is clear that, as Israeli forces gradually intensify their operations, Gaza City will be one of the main focuses of their efforts”, he indicated.
He points out that there are between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people in the area who have stayed there out of fear or determination and that it seems that Israeli forces are trying to completely isolate them.
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