Extract from ABC News
Palestinian officials and humanitarian aid groups working in Gaza say patients are unable to evacuate multiple hospitals in northern Gaza after recent bombardment, while Israel denied firing on the largest hospital, Al Shifa, saying people can evacuate safely.
Gaza health authorities said on Friday that at least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,506 children, have died since Israel launched its retaliation for the October 7 terrorist attack by Hamas.
About 2,700 people have been reported missing and are thought to be possibly trapped or dead under the rubble.
Israel says about 1,200 Israelis were killed in the October 7 attack, a figure revised down from the previously reported 1,400.
Israel has rejected growing calls for a ceasefire, saying it would not stop until about 240 hostages taken by Hamas were returned, pushing further into Gaza City in its ground invasion aiming to eliminate the militant group.
Here are the latest developments:
- Military official says Israel not firing on Al Shifa hospital
- Arab, Muslim leaders demand 'binding' UN resolution to stop Israeli 'aggression'
- Israel warns Hezbollah that Beirut could face a similar fate to Gaza
Israeli official denies firing on Al Shifa hospital, contradicting Palestinian officials and aid groups
An Israeli defence official said on Saturday that Israeli forces were not firing on Al Shifa hospital, but there are clashes with Hamas militants around it and that people can still leave the hospital safely.
Colonel Moshe Tetro of COGAT, an Israeli defence ministry agency that liaises with Palestinians on civilian affairs, said in an Arabic video message that the east side of the hospital was open for those who wanted to evacuate safely.
Palestinian health officials said previously that Al Shifa hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, had been bombed by Israeli forces five times since Thursday night, besieging patients.
They said five patients and a premature baby died and dozens more patients were at risk, including 39 babies in incubators, after the hospital suspended operations after fuel ran out.
No fuel has entered Gaza in more than five weeks of war, prompting multiple hospitals and clinics relying on generators to shut down.
Israel says doctors, patients and thousands of evacuees who have taken refuge at hospitals in northern Gaza during its ground invasion must leave so it can eliminate Hamas, which Israel claims uses hospitals as command centres.
"The hospitals need to be evacuated in order to deal with Hamas," an Israeli spokesperson said when asked if troops planned to enter Gaza hospitals at some point.
"We intend on dealing with Hamas who have turned hospitals into fortified positions."
Hamas denies using hospitals in this way and has asked the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross to send missions to Al Shifa to investigate the Israeli allegations.
Colonel Tetro in his video message said he was personally "in constant contact" with the director of the hospital and Israeli forces could coordinate the safe evacuation for those who wished to leave.
He previously denied that there was a humanitarian crisis in Gaza on Thursday.
Mohammed Abu Selmia, Al Shifa hospital's director, said Israeli troops were "shooting at anyone outside or inside the hospital", and prevented movement between the buildings in the compound.
Thousands have already fled the hospital and other hospitals that have come under attack, but physicians said it was impossible for everyone to get out.
Israeli troops had been clashing with Hamas gunmen all night in and around Gaza City, where Al Shifa is located, said residents and Islamic Jihad's military wing.
Humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said its staff working in Al Shifa hospital were "witnessing people being shot at as they attempt to flee the hospital" in a report published on Saturday.
"MSF denounces the death warrant of civilians currently trapped in Al Shifa hospital signed by the Israeli military. There needs to be an urgent and unconditional ceasefire from all warring parties; humanitarian aid must be supplied to the entirety of the Gaza Strip now."
Other hospitals in the Gaza Strip have also been besieged by Israeli forces, according to Palestinian officials and humanitarian organisations on the ground.
At Al Quds hospital, the Palestinian Red Crescent said that it was taking artillery shelling and shooting from Israeli tanks and military vehicles, which surrounded the hospital from all sides.
Rantissi Hospital, which provided paediatric care, underwent "significant bombardment" on Friday, according to the WHO.
Israeli forces later said they killed a Hamas commander who had been holding the hospital hostage, alongside other militants who had been hiding at Al Buraq school where at least 25 Palestinians had been killed.
Arab and Muslim leaders demand 'binding' UN resolution to stop Israeli 'aggression'
At an Arab-Islamic summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on Saturday, leaders called for an end to the war and rejected justifying Israel's actions against Palestinians as self-defence.
It was attended by dozens of leaders including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The summit condemned "Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip, war crimes and barbaric and inhumane massacres by the occupation government", a final communique said.
It demanded that the UN Security Council, which has thus far not responded to the war, adopt a "decisive and binding resolution" to halt Israel's "aggression" in Gaza.
The statement said "failure to do so is complicity that allows Israel to continue its brutal aggression that kills innocent people … and turns Gaza into ruin".
The summit's participants "reject describing this war as self-defence or justifying it under any pretext", it said.
It also called for an end to the siege on Gaza, allowing humanitarian aid into the enclave and halting arms exports to Israel.
Israel warns Hezbollah that Beirut could face a similar fate to Gaza
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant on Saturday warned the Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah that launching a war would result in widespread destruction in Lebanon similar to that in Gaza.
"If it [Hezbollah] makes this kind of mistake here, the ones who will pay the price will be first and foremost Lebanese citizens," he told soldiers on Israel's northern border in remarks relayed by his office.
"What we're doing in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut."
Hezbollah and Israel have been fighting along the Israel-Lebanon border since Hamas's October 7 attack in tit-for-tat exchanges, stoking fears of a broader conflagration.
According to an AFP tally, Israeli fire has killed at least 68 Hezbollah fighters since last month, as well as at least 11 civilians in Lebanon and 12 other combatants.
Six soldiers and two civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
ABC/wires
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