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31-10-2023
UNITED NATIONS/ GAZA CITY: “Hundreds and hundreds of patients” are stuck in hospitals in the north of Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees says.
Doctors say Israel told staff to evacuate Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City on Sunday but that moving patients – many of whom are in intensive care is impossible.
The Palestinian Red Crescent says Israeli air strikes are continuing in the area.
Meanwhile, an Israeli tank and armoured vehicle were seen on the main road running from north to south of the Gaza Strip, close to Gaza City.
The Israeli military said they wouldn’t comment on the location of their forces
Israel’s military says it is expanding its ground offensive in the territory, saying troops killed “dozens of terrorists” during clashes overnight.
Israel has been bombing Gaza since the 7 October Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 people and saw 230 people kidnapped as hostages.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says more than 8,000 people have been killed since Israel’s retaliatory bombing began.
Israel over the weekend announced it had entered a “second stage” of its war against militant group Hamas and on Sunday said its ground operation in Gaza would intensify, following weeks of aerial strikes on the Hamas-controlled territory.
The country was prepared for a “long and difficult” war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday, as it seeks to root out and “destroy” Hamas after its October 7 attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,400 people.
The expanded operations sparked new warnings from leaders about the risk of broader regional conflict, as well as heightened calls from the United Nations for a humanitarian ceasefire to deliver desperately needed aid into Gaza.
Israeli airstrikes have “caused extensive damage to hospital departments and exposed residents and patients to suffocation” at the Al-Quds Hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said Sunday.
The medical organization accused Israel of “deliberately” launching airstrikes “directly next to” the facility in order to force an evacuation of the hospital, the second-largest in Gaza City.
The facility is treating hundreds of patients, while some 12,000 internally displaced civilians are also sheltering there, the agency said.
The organization said it received new warnings on Sunday from Israel to immediately evacuate the hospital ahead of possible bombardment, which the World Health Organization has said would be “impossible” to do without endangering patients’ lives. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
