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Doctors at al-Shifa Hospital said the Israeli army has told the hospital to evacuate, while Israeli forces deny issuing such an order.
About 450 patients were evacuated, while about 120 were left behind because they were immobile, according to Munir al-Barsh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry, reports Al Jazeera.
Israeli forces have been accused of ransacking al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, where thousands of patients, medics and displaced people are trapped.
Gaza hospitals director Mohammed Zaqout insists that Israeli forces gave staff and patients at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza the order to evacuate this morning.
“I categorically deny these false allegations [that no evacuation was requested] … despite the difficult situation, the medical staff were working and operating … we were forced to leave at gunpoint,” he told Al Jazeera.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry issued a statement condemning the Israeli army’s occupation and evacuation of al-Shifa Hospital.
“The evacuation of al-Shifa deepens the humanitarian and environmental catastrophe Gaza faces and the great pressure that will increase on hospitals in the southern Gaza Strip,” the statement reads.
Israel’s actions represent “another hideous facet of the crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide committed by the occupation forces against Palestinians,” it continues.
The health system has collapsed in Gaza, just one element of a wider humanitarian crisis amid fears of disease and starvation.
Meanwhile, at least 28 Palestinians, mostly children, have been reportedly killed in an Israeli bombardment of Khan Younis city in south Gaza.
Israel is to allow two fuel trucks per day into Gaza to power water and sewage operations. Aid groups say the amount is far from adequate.
At least 12,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. In Israel, the official death toll from Hamas’s attacks stands at about 1,200.
Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul
