Israeli airstrikes near Al Quds Hospital in Gaza; death toll nears 8,000
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Gaza: The Israeli military has stepped up attacks close to Al Quds hospital in Gaza City, after ordering its “immediate” evacuation, media reports said.
The director of the hospital said there is no reason for Israel to target the facility or the areas nearby.
“There’s no police presence in the hospital, no military presence, nothing at all. Just thousands of Palestinians here many of whom have lost their homes. Thousands of others are seeking shelter in UNRWA schools. Israel is targeting every single building around Al Quds Hospital,” he said according to the Al Jazeera report.
In a video statement shared to X, the Palestinian Red Crescent says it does not have the means to evacuate al-Quds hospital in Gaza, The Guardian reported.
“We have over 400 patients who are inside the hospital, many of them are in the intensive care unit. Evacuating them means killing them. That’s why we refuse the evacuation order,” a representative of the group said.
“We call on the international community to intervene immediately to stop a humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding.”
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In another video, the Palestinian Red Crescent said there are 14,000 displaced civilians, the majority of whom are children and women, now residing inside the hospital.
There are reports of clashes between IDF troops and Palestinian gunmen in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, close to Erez, media reported.
The death toll in Gaza has risen to 7,960, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah said on Sunday, drawing data from sources in the Hamas-controlled enclave, a media report said.
According to a ministry report, nearly three-quarters- 73 per cent- of those killed are from vulnerable populations, including children, women and elderly individuals.
The ministry added that the total number of dead includes 116 medical professionals.
The updated figures came as Israel said the next stage of its war with Hamas has begun after it expanded its ground operations in the enclave.
"The war inside Gaza is going to be long," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned on Saturday, CNN reported.
Meanwhile, societal order is beginning to collapse in the besieged Gaza Strip after thousands of desperate people raided UN warehouses in search of food, amid continuing bombardment by Israeli airstrikes and a widening ground offensive as the war enters its fourth week, The Guardian reported.
Thomas White, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said on Sunday that wheat, flour and hygiene supplies had been taken overnight from several UN-run centres across the blockaded 41 km by 12 km strip, which is home to more than 2 million trapped people.
With inputs from agencies
