Hospital evacuated after weeks of fighting
Palestinians have begun evacuating the main hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, according to videos shared by medics.
Weeks of heavy fighting had isolated the medical facility and claimed the lives of several people inside it.
The war between Israel and Hamas, now in its fifth month, has devastated Gaza’s health sector, with less than half of its hospitals even partially functioning as scores of people are killed and wounded in daily bombardments.
Israel accuses the militants of using hospitals and other civilian buildings as cover.
Khan Younis is the main target of a rolling ground offensive that Israel has said will soon be expanded to Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah.
Some 1.4 million people – more than half the territory’s population–arecrammedinto tent camps and overflowing apartments and shelters in the town on the Egyptian border.
The videos showed dozens of Palestinians carrying their belongings in sacks and making their way out of the Nasser Hospital complex.
A doctor wearing green hospital scrubs walked ahead of the crowd, some of whom were carrying white flags.
The Israeli military said it had opened a secure route to allow civilians to leave the hospital, while medics and patients could remain inside. Troops have been ordered to "prioritise the safety of civilians, patients, medical workers, and medical facilities during the operation", it said.
The military had ordered the evacuation of the hospital and surrounding areas last month.
But as with other health facilities, medics said patients were unable to safely leave or be relocated, and thousands of people displaced by fighting elsewhere remained there.
Palestinians say nowhere is safe in the besieged territory, as Israel continues to carry out strikes in all parts of it.
The Gaza health ministry said last week that Israeli snipers were preventing people from entering or leaving the hospital.
It said ten people have been killed inside the complex over the past week, including three shot and killed on Tuesday.
The ministry says around 300 medical staff were treating some 450 patients, including people wounded in strikes. It says 10,000 displaced people were sheltering in the facility.
The war erupted after Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking around 250 captive.
More than 100 hostages were released during a week-long ceasefire in November.
Israel responded to the attack by launching one of the deadliest and most destructive air and ground offensives in recent history.
At least 28,576 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
Large areas in northern Gaza have been completely destroyed and a humanitarian crisis has left a quarter of the population starving.
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until “total victory” over Hamas and the return of all the hostages.