Overnight strikes kill more than 130 as Israeli troops lay siege to hospital in Khan Younis
Patients, staff and displaced people at Khan Younis’s Nasser Hospital are in “extreme danger”, the Gaza Health Ministry has warned, as Israel continues to lay siege to southern Gaza.
People taking shelter in the complex have been ordered to evacuate, but are being shot at while trying to leave, the ministry said yesterday.
Medics and patients have been ordered to stay in the building, where sewage has flooded the emergency department. The ministry warned an epidemic may be hard to avoid as waste accumulates. Staff cannot move bodies to the mortuary due to the dangerous conditions, ministry spokesman Dr Ashraf Al Qudra said.
More than 130 people were killed during Israeli strikes on Monday night, the ministry said, bringing the death toll across the enclave to more than 28,400 since October 7.
As Israel prepares for a ground incursion into the southern city of Rafah, many of the 1.4 million people who have sought refuge there are now moving towards central Gaza, even as the region continues to be hit by Israeli air strikes.
At least 16 people were killed in an attack on the central Nuseirat refugee camp yesterday. Abu Hamza Ali, from northern Gaza, fled to Rafah to escape the fighting, but has decided to head north.
“Everywhere is dangerous, and I am staying in Rafah in a tent, so I will move the tent away from Rafah,” he told The National.
“From the beginning, I didn’t plan on leaving my home. If the Israeli army intends to harm us, why did they tell us to flee to the south for our safety? Now, they have targeted us in the south,” he added.
Soha Salah fled Rafah with her children, but cannot find a place to stay further north.
“I was sitting with our relatives in their house, and their house was partially destroyed due to Israeli shelling. So, I decided to leave Rafah, because my children are scared,” she told The National.
“I thought maybe I could find one of the UNRWA schools, but all schools are full. I am also afraid of diseases, so where should I go?”
The international community has repeatedly warned Israel against a full-scale ground offensive in Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stood firm on his decision to send troops into the city, saying enough hostages are still alive
to warrant military action. Israeli attacks have already caused widespread devastation in the city. At least 67 people were killed during a hostage rescue operation on Monday.
During the raid, Israeli troops rescued two men who had been abducted by Hamas during its attacks on October 7, when about 1,200 people were killed and 240 taken hostage.
Anticipating an Israeli offensive in Rafah, South Africa said yesterday that it had sent an urgent request to the International Court of Justice.
The South African government told the court that “it was gravely concerned that the unprecedented military offensive against Rafah … has already led to and will result in further large-scale killing, harm and destruction”.
An Israeli incursion into Rafah “would be in serious and irreparable breach both of the Genocide Convention and of the court’s order,” it added.
“South Africa trusts this matter will receive the necessary urgency in light of the daily death toll in Gaza.”
Late last month, the ICJ ordered Israel to do all it can to prevent death, destruction and acts of genocide in the enclave.