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01-06-2025
GAZA STRIP: The last hospital providing health services in the North Gaza governorate is out of service after the Israeli military ordered its immediate evacuation, the facility’s director has said.
Dr Mohammed Salha told media that patients were evacuated from al-Awda hospital in Jabalia on Thursday evening after “two weeks of siege”, and there was now “no health facility working in the north”.
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is yet to respond to enquiries.
It comes as efforts continue to secure a ceasefire. Hamas says it is “thoroughly reviewing” a US plan, which the White House has said has been “signed off” by Israel.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a deal was “very close” but Hamas has said the plan does not satisfy its core demands including Israel’s commitment to ending the war.
The deal would reportedly involve a 60-day pause in fighting, with Hamas releasing 28 hostages, alive and dead, in the first week, with the remaining 30 hostages freed once a permanent ceasefire is in place. More than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners would be released, while humanitarian aid would be sent to Gaza via the United Nations and other agencies.
Israel has continued its military operation in the territory, at least 72 people were killed in strikes over the past 24 hours, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said on Friday.
On Thursday evening, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of areas including the al-Awda hospital, saying there was terrorist activity in the region which warranted the IDF to “expand its offensive activity”.
In a voice note to media, Dr Salha said; we’re really sad that we evacuated the hospital but the Israeli occupation forces threatened us that if we didn’t evacuate, they would enter and kill whoever is inside “or they would bomb the hospital. We were thinking of the lives of patients and our staff.”
Dr Salha said the hospital faced “a lot of bombing and shooting from the tanks” from around noon local time (09:00 GMT) on Thursday.
He received a call from the Israeli forces at about 13:00 to evacuate and initially refused because there were patients in need of healthcare. He offered to stay with 10 of his staff and evacuate the others but the military refused, he said.
After seven hours of negotiations, the evacuation occurred at about 20:30.
Staff carried patients more than 300 metres (984 ft.) to ambulances parked away from the hospital because surrounding roads were “totally destroyed”.
Two videos sent to media by al-Awda hospital staff show people, some wearing vests with the hospital’s name on the back, boarding ambulances and a lorry to the east of the hospital courtyard at sunset, and a convoy of similar vehicles heading south through Jabalia after dark.
Patients were evacuated to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Dr Salha told media they would provide services through a primary health centre in Gaza City and said another might be established in a shelter.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the closure of al-Awda meant there was no remaining functioning hospital in the North Gaza governorate, “severing a critical lifeline for the people there”.
He also reiterated calls for civilians and health workers to be protected saying; “hospitals must never be attacked or militarized.”
Al-Awda hospital was inside an evacuation zone announced last week but had still been functioning, its director previously said. (Int’l News Desk)
