CAIRO — Israel ordered the closure and evacuation on Sunday (Dec 22) of one of the last hospitals still partly functioning in a besieged area on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, forcing medics to search for a way to bring hundreds of patients and staff to safety.

The head of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya, Husam Abu Safiya, told Reuters via text message that obeying the order to shut down was "next to impossible" because there were not enough ambulances to get patients out.

"We currently have nearly 400 civilians inside the hospital, including babies in the neonatal unit, whose lives depend on oxygen and incubators. We cannot evacuate these patients safely without assistance, equipment, and time," said Abu Safiya.

"We are sending this message under heavy bombardment and direct targeting of the fuel tanks, which if hit will cause a large explosion and mass casualties of the civilians inside," he said.

The Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment on Abu Safiya's remarks. It said that on Friday it had sent fuel and food to the hospital and helped evacuate more than 100 patients and caregivers to other Gaza hospitals, some in coordination with the Red Cross, for their own safety.

The hospital is one of the few still partially functioning in the once crowded northern edge of Gaza, an area under intense Israeli military pressure for nearly three months in one of the most punishing operations of the 14-month-old war.

Abu Safiya said the military had ordered patients and staff to be evacuated to another hospital where conditions are even worse. Photos from inside the hospital showed patients on beds crammed into corridors to keep them away from windows. Reuters could not immediately verify those images.

Israel says its operation around three communities on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip — Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia — is targeting Hamas militants. Palestinians accuse Israel of seeking to permanently depopulate the area to create a buffer zone, which Israel denies.

Fighting at close quarters

Hamas released a video on Sunday that it said had been filmed in northern Gaza. It showed fighters positioned in blown-out buildings and in piles of wreckage, clad in civilian clothing and firing projectiles at Israeli forces.

The Israeli military said on Sunday forces operating in Beit Hanoun had struck Hamas militants and infrastructure. Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad group said they caused casualties among Israeli soldiers.

Separately, Israel allowed the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, the Latin patriarch, into Gaza on Sunday, according to a statement on the Latin Patriarchate website and COGAT, the Israeli defence agency that coordinates with the Palestinians, after Pope Francis said on Saturday that the patriarch had not been allowed in.

Elsewhere, Israeli military strikes across the Gaza Strip killed at least 29 Palestinians, eight of them — including some children — at a school sheltering displaced families in Gaza City, medics said.

Two children were killed in another airstrike that hit an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, killing a total of at least five, medics said.

In both those incidents, the Israeli military said it had targeted Hamas militants operating from within those areas and that it had taken precautions to reduce risk of harm to civilians. Hamas denies it operates among civilians.

Mediators have stepped up efforts in recent weeks to secure a ceasefire in Gaza after months when talks were frozen.

Israel began its assault in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities on Oct 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Around half of the 100 hostages still being held are believed to be alive.

Authorities in Gaza say Israel's campaign has killed more than 45,200 Palestinians. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of the coastal enclave is in ruins.

Source: Reuters