Israeli army orders evacuation of Gaza City’s Al-rimal neighbourhood, Al-shifa Hospital
WHO warned on Monday that health care facilities should never be used as battlegrounds
The Israeli army ordered on Monday residents and displaced people in the Al-rimal neighbourhood and the Al-shifa Hospital in Gaza City to evacuate immediately to the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
“For your safety, to all those present and displaced in the AlRimal neighbourhood and in the vicinity of Al-shifa Hospital, you must evacuate the area immediately to the west, then southward through Rashid Street to the humanitarian zone in Al-mawasi,” army spokesperson Avichay Adraee said on X.
Early on Monday, the Israeli army announced that its forces stormed the Al-shifa Hospital, which houses thousands of ill and wounded patients, as well as displaced people.
According to Israeli public broadcaster KAN, around 80 Palestinians were detained from the facility.
Adraee claimed that the military and Shin Bet security agency
were operating inside Al-shifa ‘to thwart terrorist activities and arrest saboteurs’.
“During the operation, the army forces came under fire from saboteurs inside the hospital, and the forces responded by firing back and injuring the saboteurs,” he said.
WHO warning
Any hostilities or militarisation of
Al-shifa Hospital in the Gaza Strip endangers health services, the World Health Organization’s (WHO) director general warned on Monday, stressing that health care facilities should never be used as battlegrounds.
“We are terribly worried about the situation at Al-shifa Hospital in northern #Gaza, which is endangering health workers, patients and civilians,” Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X, emphasising that hospitals should never be battlegrounds.
Ghebreyesus said the hospital has only recently restored minimal health services in northern Gaza, which is ‘endangering health workers, patients, and civilians’, and that any hostilities or militarisation of the facility would ‘jeopardise health services, access for ambulances,
and delivery of life-saving supplies’. “Hospitals must be protected,” he said, reiterating his call for a ceasefire in the besieged enclave.
‘Major activity’
Meanwhile, Israel has announced it plans to conduct what it called a ‘major activity’ in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, following the evacuation of
Palestinians to the western area of the city.
“Of course, we will act in Rafah, and before the major activity, we will evacuate the residents from there to the western area,” Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Israel’s public broadcaster KAN.
In recent weeks, Israeli officials repeatedly rejected the return of Palestinian refugees from the southern Gaza Strip to its north. He said: “When we have to act in Rafah, I see no gap between the US and Israel, including evacuating civilians.”
Katz’s statement comes a day after a spokesperson for the US National Security Council, John Kirby, confirmed that Washington would not support any largescale Israeli military operation in Rafah without a viable plan ensuring the security and safety of 1.5mn displaced people.
On March 15, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approved plans for a military operation in Rafah, and the army is preparing to evacuate the residents.
Death toll in Gaza reaches 31,726
At least 81 Palestinians were killed and 116 others injured in the last 24 hours as Israel continues its onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip since October 7, the territory’s Health Ministry said on Monday.
“The Israeli occupation committed eight massacres against families in the Gaza Strip, leaving 81 martyrs and 116 injured during the past 24 hours,” the ministry said in a statement.
At least 31,726 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, and 73,792 injured since October 7, according to Palestinian health authorities.