Israel orders evacuation of crucial Gaza hospital that may mean 'killing 400 patients'
My colleague Andy Lines reports how Israel has ordered the complete evacuation of a hospital where as many as 14,000 displaced Gazans are believed to be sheltering.
Israel has ordered the evacuation of a hospital in Gaza that may result in the deaths of 400 patients.
Its forces have launched several airstrikes in the area around al-Quds Hospital, damaging most nearby buildings including a block of flats. Hundreds of patients are still being treated at the facility, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent, as missiles fall just metres away.
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “The Palestinian Red Crescent report of evacuation threats to al-Quds hospital in Gaza is deeply concerning. We reiterate... it’s impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives.”
A spokesman for the Red Crescent added: “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.”
Israel launched a second phase of war over the weekend, with IDF forces intensifying operations. The IDF said this morning it struck 450 targets it claimed belonged to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Harrowing pictures showed mass destruction around Al-Bilal mosque within the Al-Bureij camp.
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari said: “We’re gradually expanding the ground activities and the extent of our forces in the Gaza Strip. The ground operation is complex and involves risks for our forces too.
“We will do everything in our power – from the air, sea and ground – to ensure the safety of our forces and to achieve the war’s objectives.” Thousands of starving Gazans have broken into United Nations warehouses to grab food.
They stormed the distribution centres and warehouses of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency “taking wheat flour and other basic survival items like hygiene supplies”. Thomas White, of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said the warehouse break-ins were “a worrying sign that civil order is starting to break down”.
He added: “People are scared, frustrated and desperate.” Israel has allowed only a small trickle of aid to enter from Egypt, some of which was stored in one of the warehouses that was broken into.
International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan visited the Rafah border crossing this weekend and said the ICC has “active investigations ongoing in relation to the crimes, allegedly committed in Israel the 7th of October and also in relation to Gaza and the West Bank.” Across the border 40 miles north, the hostages taken by Hamas have become the key focus of Israelis and huge demonstrations take place daily.
An Israeli mother whose two children and husband were kidnapped has called for the army to hold off fully invading Gaza until all the hostages are freed. Hadas Kalderon’s mother and niece, Carmela and Noya Dan, were murdered by the abductors. She still has hope her son Erez, 12, daughter Sahar, 16, and 53-year-old husband Ofer will be released.
But she warned: “There must be no full-scale ground invasion until all the hostages are out safely.” Haviva Levi’s nephew Matan, 24, was abducted with his girlfriend Ilana, 30.
We met her at the peaceful protest in Tel Aviv today. She had Matan’s photo around her neck. She said: “We know from his phone signal that he was taken into Gaza. She was seen on the back of a motorbike so we know she was alive.
“We are praying they are still alive. We just want to see them back home safely. That’s all that’s important at the minute.” An MP with family in Gaza said civilians are now having to decide where they want to die as she described her “torturous” wait for news after contact was lost.
Lib Dem Layla Moran hit out at a Tory minister who claimed people are staying put because Hamas is telling them to, branding this “deeply offensive”. She said: “Nowhere in Gaza is safe.
“The conversation in Gaza now, I’m afraid to say, has changed. No longer are people saying, ‘Where do we go to be safe?’ The question they are now asking is, ‘Where do we want to be when we die?’” Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf said he had heard from his wife’s parents who are trapped in Gaza and have run out of clean drinking water. He added: “The UN resolution must be implemented. We need the violence to stop and for significant amounts of aid to get through without delay.”
Fears for newborn babies with 50,000 pregnant women trapped under Gaza barrage
Up to 50,000 terrified pregnant women are waiting to give birth inside the besieged Gaza Strip.
The United Nations said more than 5,500 of them are due to have their babies in the next 30 days. One was killed this week in an air strike but her baby was successfully delivered by emergency caesarean. Others have had to give birth on the floors of hospitals. Hundreds have been forced to leave their homes and are looking for safe ways to give birth as the healthcare system collapses.
Niveen al-Barbari, 33, is due to have her first child next week but has lost contact with her doctor. She said: “Every day I wonder how and where I’ll give birth. The bombs don’t stop and no human, tree or stone has been spared. We don’t know whose house will be destroyed or who will die. I just hope me and my child are safe.”
She added: “All these images of babies and children under the rubble of their homes or lying in hospital with injuries makes me very scared for my baby. Every day I pray for the war to end in order to save my child from these missiles that have no mercy on anyone.” She said that every Israeli air attack she could hear leads her to suffer back and stomach pain.
Before the war began on October 7, al-Barbari had regular visits to a specialist because she suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. But when the bombings started she was forced to seek shelter in her family’s home, and she lost contact with her doctor. A 30-year-old pregnant woman, who asked not to be named, said she hid as bombs fell, adding: “Each step felt like a race against death.”
Dr Walid Abu Hatab, a consultant at the Nasser Medical Complex, said displaced women have had to change health centres, which makes it “very difficult” for them to get primary care and follow-up sessions. The UN Population Fund said hospitals are “overwhelmed” and out of medicine and basic supplies. It has called for “urgent health care and protection” for pregnant women.
Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kane said “For the thousands of women about to give birth, and those who are sick and critically injured, being forced from their homes with nowhere safe to go and no food or water, is extremely dangerous.” Laila Baraka, 30, is currently three months pregnant after a successful round of IVF following years of trying for a second child.
She told Al Jazeera: “All day, I’m scared of the sound of bombings, and at night, it is even more intense and terrifying. I hug my five-year-old son close as I try to swallow my fear, but I cannot. What we hear terrifies stones, not just humans.” Laila moved from her home in Bani Suhaila to a safer area.
But the health centre she had registered with before is not responding to her calls. She said: “Even my doctor has been displaced from his home and communicating with him is very difficult. “I’m lucky that my mother is constantly by my side.”
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Chris