Israeli troops forced the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and many patients, some of them on foot, arrived at another hospital miles away in Gaza City, the territory’s ministry for health said on Tuesday.
The Indonesian Hospital is one of the Gaza Strip’s few still partially functioning hospitals, on its northern edge, an area that has been under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months.
Israel says its operation around the three northern Gaza communities surrounding the hospital – Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia – is targeting Hamas militants.
Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate northern Gaza to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.
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Munir Al-Bursh, director of the ministry for health in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, said the Israeli army had ordered hospital officials to evacuate it on Monday, before storming it in the early hours of Tuesday and forcing those inside to leave.
He said two other medical facilities in northern Gaza, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals, were also subject to frequent assaults by Israeli troops.
Israeli forces have operated in the vicinity of Kamal Adwan since Monday, medics said.
An Israeli security official said the area was a Hamas stronghold.
“Kamal Adwan is at the heart of the most complex fighting in Jabaliya,” he said. “We are being very careful.”
Officials at the three hospitals have so far refused orders by Israel to evacuate their facilities or leave patients unattended since the new military offensive began on October 5th.
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Israel says it has been facilitating the delivery of medical supplies, fuel and the transfer of patients to other hospitals in the enclave during that period in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organisation.
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said they resisted a new order by the army to evacuate hundreds of patients, their companions and staff, adding that the hospital has been under constant Israeli fire that damaged generators, oxygen pumps and parts of the building.
Meanwhile, Israeli bombardment continued elsewhere in the enclave and medics said at least nine Palestinians, including a member of the civil emergency service, were killed in four separate military strikes on Tuesday.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas’s October 7th, 2023, attack on southern Israel, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel's campaign against Hamas has since killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.
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A fresh bid by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States to end the fighting and release Israeli and foreign hostages has gained momentum this month, though no breakthrough has yet been reported.
Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday said progress had been made in hostage negotiations with Hamas but that he did not know how much longer it would take to see the results.
Gaps between Israel and Hamas over a possible Gaza ceasefire have narrowed, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials’ remarks on Monday, though crucial differences have yet to be resolved.
In the West Bank, Al Jazeera television has clashed with the Palestinian Authority over its coverage of the weeks-long standoff between Palestinian security forces and militant fighters in the occupied city of Jenin.
Fatah, the faction which controls the Palestinian Authority, condemned the Qatari-headquartered network, which has reported extensively on the clashes in Jenin, saying it was sowing division in “our Arab homeland in general and in Palestine in particular”. It encouraged Palestinians not to co-operate with the TV network.
Israel closed down Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel in May, saying it threatened national security. In September, it ordered the network’s bureau in Ramallah to close for 45 days after an intelligence assessment that the offices were being used to support terrorist activities.
“Al Jazeera has successfully maintained its professionalism throughout its coverage of the unfolding events in Jenin,” it said in a statement on Tuesday.
Palestinian Authority security forces have battled Islamist fighters in Jenin as they try to control one of the historic centres of militancy in the West Bank ahead of a likely shakeout in Palestinian politics after the Gaza war.
Forces of the PA, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, moved into Jenin in early December, clashing daily with fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad, both of which are supported by Iran.
The standoff has fuelled bitter anger on both sides, deepening the divisions which have long existed between the Palestinian factions and their supporters.
Al Jazeera said its broadcasts fairly presented the views of both sides. “The voices of both the Palestinian resistance and the spokesperson of the Palestinian National Security Forces have always been present on Al Jazeera’s screens,” Al Jazeera said. – Reuters