Gaza medics struggle to rescue patients after Israel orders hospital evacuated

CAIRO: Israel ordered the closure and evacuation on Sunday of one of the last hospitals still partly functioning in a besieged area on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, forcing medics to search for a way to bring hundreds of patients and staff to safety.

The head of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Husam Abu Safiya, told Reuters via text message that obeying the order to shut down was “next to impossible” because there were not enough ambulances to get patients out.

“We currently have nearly 400 civilians inside the hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators. We cannot evacuate these patients safely without assistance, equipment, and time,” said Abu Safiya.

“We are sending this message under heavy bombardment and direct targeting of the fuel tanks, which if hit will cause a large explosion and mass casualties of the civilians inside,” he said.

Photos from inside the hospital showed patients on beds crammed into corridors to keep them away from windows. Reuters could not immediately verify those images.

The hospital is one of the only ones still even partially functioning in the once crowded northern edge of the Gaza Strip, an area under Israeli siege for nearly three months in one of the most punishing operations of the 14-month-old war.

Abu Safiya said the military had ordered patients and staff to be evacuated to another hospital where conditions are even worse. The army did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Israel says its siege of three communities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip - Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia - is part of an operation to prevent group from regrouping. Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate the area to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.

The Israeli military said on Sunday forces operating in Beit Hanoun struck Hamas and infrastructure. The armed wings of Hamas and the allied group said they killed many Israeli soldiers.

Elsewhere, Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 24 Palestinians, eight of them, including some children, at a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City, medics said.

The Israeli military said in a statement that strike targeted Hamas operating from a command centre embedded inside the school. It said fighters used the place to plan and execute attacks against Israeli forces. Hamas denies its forces operate among civilians.

Medics said four Palestinians were killed when an airstrike hit a car elsewhere in Gaza City. An Israeli security official said troops had “struck a Hamas in a vehicle”.

At least 12 other Palestinians were killed in airstrikes in Rafah and Khan Younis in the south of the enclave, and Nusseirat and Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.

Mediators have stepped up efforts in recent weeks to secure a ceasefire in Gaza after months when talks were frozen. Sources close to the discussions told Reuters on Thursday that Qatar and Egypt had been able to resolve some differences between the warring parties but sticking points remained.