Israel extends evacuation of Shifa hospital

2023-11-18 10:27:45

The Israeli military says it wants to expand an operation to evacuate the largest clinic in the Gaza Strip. This was done at the request of the director of the Shifa Hospital in Gaza, the military said on Saturday. The army emphasized that it had never ordered the evacuation of patients or medical personnel. The aim is to enable other people who sought protection in the clinic to “do so safely”.

Eyewitnesses in the Gaza Strip confirmed to the German Press Agency that people were leaving the clinic premises. The military said it also offered to enable the evacuation of patients. Medical staff will remain at the hospital to care for patients who cannot leave the clinic, it said.

Israeli soldiers have been deployed in and around the clinic for days – despite international criticism of the military crackdown in a hospital. Israel accuses the Islamist Hamas of using the hospital for terrorist purposes and of operating a command center under the buildings. Hamas denies this.

After the start of the war, thousands sought shelter from Israeli bombardments in the buildings and grounds of the Shifa Hospital. It is unclear how many people are currently still there. The World Health Organization (WHO) put the number at around 2,000 several days ago, including probably more than 600 patients.

Israel has been calling on people in Gaza and the northern Gaza Strip for weeks to flee to the south of the sealed-off coastal strip for security reasons.

In the West Bank, Israel’s army said it killed “several terrorists” in a refugee camp in the city of Nablus. The military announced on Saturday that an aircraft attacked their hiding place during the operation in Balata. According to Palestinian sources, five men were killed in the Israeli army’s drone strike on Saturday night. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, two people were also injured.

According to the army, the killed Palestinians were planning attacks once morest Israeli civilians and military targets. One of the dead had already been involved in attacks in the past. During the raid on the refugee camp, attackers shot at the emergency services. According to the army, the soldiers returned fire.

According to a WAFA report, a Palestinian was also killed in confrontations during a raid by the Israeli military in Tubas in the north of the West Bank.

The situation in the West Bank has deteriorated significantly since the war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas, which rules in the Gaza Strip, began on October 7th. According to the Ministry of Health, around 200 Palestinians have been killed since then.

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