Most people leave Shifa Hospital as IDF pushes deeper into Gaza

Most patients, staff, displaced persons left Shifa Hospital, the largest medical center in Gaza, on Saturday, health officials in the Gaza Strip said, leaving only a small team to care for those too ill to move and Israeli forces controlling the facility, The Times of Israel reported, UNN wrote .

Details

The exodus from Shifa Hospital in Gaza City reportedly came on the same day that internet and telephone service was restored in the Gaza Strip, ending a telecommunications blackout that forced the UN to halt critical humanitarian aid deliveries because it could not coordinate its convoys.

On Saturday, the Israeli Defense Forces said that the hospital director had asked them to help those who wanted to leave the hospital do so safely.

Refuting the AFP report, the military said it had not ordered the evacuation and that medical staff were allowed to remain in the hospital to help patients who could not be moved.

The IDF also reported that soldiers delivered more than 6,000 liters of water and more than 2,300 kilograms of food to Shifa Hospital.

"These activities were carried out in parallel with the IDF's activities to detect and stop terrorism in the hospital," the IDF said.

Over the past week, the Israeli military has been conducting operations around the hospital, uncovering what it claims is evidence of Hamas using the site for terrorist activity.

The military also discovered the bodies of two Israeli hostages kidnapped by Hamas during the October 7 attack on the grounds of Shifa Hospital.

Hamas on Saturday confirmed the death of Ahmad Bahar, a member of the Hamas political bureau, following an Israeli strike in Gaza, as the Israeli military continued to target senior officials, command centers, rocket sites and weapons laboratories in the enclave.

Bahar, 76, previously served as vice president of the Palestinian Legislative Council.

The IDF said it had expanded its operations in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, with offensive operations against Hamas terrorist infrastructure and battalions by the 36th Division in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City and the 162nd Division in Jabaliya.

The IDF stated that the Southern Command "continues to expand its operations in additional areas" and is working to "pursue terrorists and strike Hamas infrastructure," publishing footage of these actions.

As the Israeli military secures control of Gaza City, it has begun warning residents of Khan Younis in the southern part of the enclave to evacuate, indicating that the ground operation is likely to expand to the southern parts of the Strip in the coming days and weeks, the newspaper writes.

It is also reported that the Israeli military announced a humanitarian pause in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday to allow Palestinians to evacuate to the south.

Addendum

The latest siege and Israeli military operation began after a brutal Hamas attack on October 7, when the group killed about 1,200 people and took more than 230 hostages, according to Israeli authorities. According to the health ministry of the Hamas-ruled Palestinian enclave, at least 12,000 people have been killed in the territory since Israel launched retaliatory strikes.