Dies as fuel runs out at Gazan hospital
moment, and one of them died this morning.
“Failure to bring fuel into the hospitals will be a death sentence for the rest. The incubators will only be able to work until this evening, after which the fuel will run out.”
Robert Mardini, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the “unbearably desperate situation” must stop now and that patients and staff had to be protected.
Up to 15,000 civilians had been sheltering in the Al-Shifa compound over recent weeks, but many fled the site on Friday following several nearby strikes in which one person was killed and several others were wounded.
“The hospitals need to be evacuated in order to deal with Hamas,” the Israeli military said.
“We intend on dealing with
Hamas who have turned hospitals into fortified positions.”
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the responsibility for any harm to civilians lay at the hands of Hamas.
Netanyahu said that Israel has urged civilians to leave combat zones but that “Hamas is doing everything it can to prevent them from leaving”.
Israel later insisted its forces were not firing on the hospital but that there were clashes with Hamas militants around it.
The east side of the hospital was open for anyone who wants to evacuate safely, Colonel Moshe Tetro said in an Arabic video message.
At another hospital, Al-Quds, medical teams worked on patients under torchlight in video footage released by the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Israel’s military revealed its forces had killed a Hamas commander called Ahmed Siam, who it said had blocked the evacuation of another hospital.
Israel claimed Siam had previously “held hostage approximately 1,000 Gazan residents at the Rantisi hospital and prevented them from evacuating southwards for their safety”.
Israel also said yesterday that rockets were still being fired from Gaza into southern Israel.
At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on October 7.
Nearly 240 people abducted from Israel by Hamas remain captive.
Palestinian officials said on Friday that 11,078 Gaza residents had been killed in air and artillery strikes since October 7, around 40% of them children.