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 local health ministry said.
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.
Munir al-Bursh, director of the Gaza health ministry, 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 — the Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals — were also subject to frequent assaults by Israeli troops.
Israeli forces have operated in the vicinity of the Kamal Adwan Hospital 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 refused orders by Israel to evacuate their facilities or leave patients unattended since the new military offensive began on 5 October.
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
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.
Israel has bombarded Gaza since , in which 1,200 people, including an estimated 30 children, were killed and over 200 hostages taken, according to Israeli tallies.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 7, according to the health ministry in Gaza. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and
A new 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 been reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday 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.
Five reportedly killed in West Bank
Also on Tuesday, Israeli forces killed at least eight Palestinians in raids on a refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.
Khawla Abdo, a 53-year-old woman, was killed as a result of shelling by Israeli forces at dawn, while Fathi Saeed Odeh Salem, an 18-year-old man, died after being shot in the abdomen and chest, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Another Palestinian woman died in the afternoon due to sustained injuries from the attack.
Later on Tuesday, the health ministry updated its death toll to eight after a new round of shelling in Tulkarm by Israeli forces.
Hamas’ armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement two of its members were killed by Israeli forces in Tulkarm.
The Israeli military said earlier it killed one Palestinian in a “counter-terrorism” operation in Tulkarm, while its forces arrested 18 other wanted individuals and confiscated dozens of weapons.
Late on Tuesday, the military also said aircraft had struck armed militants in the Nur Shams refugee camp.
Hundreds of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis have been killed in the West Bank since the October 7 attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel triggered the war in Gaza and a wider conflict on several fronts.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA said Israeli forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching Salem by opening fire on them.
Bulldozers also demolished infrastructure in Tulkarm camp, including homes, shops, part of the walls of Al-Salam mosque, which they barricaded off, and part of the camp’s water network, it said.