Extract from ABC News
Israeli forces besieged two more Gaza hospitals on Sunday, pinning down medical teams under heavy gunfire and forcing the evacuation of patients and displaced people sheltering in one, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.
The reported hospital battles came as the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) said that Israel had informed the UN that it will no longer approve UNRWA food convoys to the north of Gaza.
Israeli forces say hospitals in the Gaza Strip have frequently been used as strongholds of Hamas militants harbouring bases and weapons. Hamas and medical staff deny this.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of its staff was killed when Israeli tanks suddenly pushed back into areas around Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis, amid shelling and gunfire.
Israeli armoured forces sealed off Al-Amal Hospital and carried out extensive bulldozing operations in its vicinity, the Red Crescent said.
"All of our teams are in extreme danger at the moment and are completely immobilised," it said in a statement.
It said Israeli forces demanded the complete evacuation of staff, patients and displaced people from Al-Amal and fired smoke bombs into the area to try to push out its occupants.
Hours later, the Red Crescent said all patients who could be moved — as well as displaced people who found refuge from fighting in the hospital compound — had been evacuated westwards to Al Mawasi, a coastal beach settlement.
It said hospital staff remained along with nine severely ill or wounded people and ten companions as well as a displaced family with special needs, emphasising the need to evacuate them safely.
Earlier, the Red Crescent said a displaced Palestinian was killed inside the hospital premises by Israeli gunfire.
The Israeli military said its forces were hitting "infrastructure" in Khan Younis used as lairs for numerous militants. Hamas denies using hospitals for military ends and accuses Israel of war crimes against civilian targets.
Khan Younis residents said Israeli forces had also advanced and formed a cordon around Nasser Hospital in western Khan Younis under cover of heavy fire from the air and ground.
UNWRA aid blocked
The head of the Palestinian refugee agency said on Sunday that Israel had informed the UN that it will no longer approve its convoys to the north of Gaza.
"This is outrageous and makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine. These restrictions must be lifted," UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said on social media platform X.
UNRWA, which provides aid and services to Palestinian refugees in Gaza and across the region, has been in crisis since Israel accused a dozen of its staff of involvement in the October 7 Hamas attacks against Israel.
The allegations prompted UNRWA's biggest donor, the United States, and some others to pause funding, putting the agency's future in doubt. However, other countries including Canada, Australia and Sweden have since restored funding.
UNRWA and Egypt said last week that Mr Lazzarini, who was on a visit to Cairo, was denied entry to Gaza by Israeli authorities.
"By preventing UNRWA to fulfill its mandate in Gaza, the clock will tick faster towards famine and many more will die of hunger, dehydration and lack of shelter," Mr Lazzarini added.
Al-Shifa raid nets more militants, Israel says
Separately, the Israeli military said it had captured 480 militants in a continuing week-long raid into the Palestinian enclave's largest hospital, Al-Shifa, in Gaza City in the north of the densely populated strip.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said dozens of patients and medical staffers had been detained by Israeli forces at Al-Shifa. The Hamas-run government media office said Israeli forces had killed five Palestinian doctors.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those reports. It said earlier that it had killed over 170 gunmen in the raid, which the Palestinian Health Ministry said had also caused the deaths of five patients.
Al-Shifa is one of the few healthcare facilities even partially operational in north Gaza, and like others had also been housing some of the nearly 2 million civilians — over 80 per cent of Gaza's population — displaced by the war.
Reuters has been unable to access Gaza's contested hospital areas and verify accounts by either side.
In Rafah, Gaza's southernmost town on the Egyptian border town that has become the last refuge for half of Gaza's uprooted population, an Israeli air strike on a house killed seven people, health officials said.
At least 32,226 Palestinians have been killed, among them 84 in the past 24 hours, and 74,518 injured in Israel's air and ground offensive into the Gaza Strip since October 7, its health ministry said in a Sunday update.
Reuters
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