Evacuation begins from Al Shifa / Israel denies having ordered such a thing

2023-11-18 16:40:41, Kosova & Bota CNA

Patients, medical staff and displaced Palestinians began leaving Gaza's Al Shifa hospital on Saturday amid conflicting reports that Israel had given them an hour to evacuate.

Doctors said that patients in serious condition will continue to stay there under the supervision of a small number of medical personnel.

The Israel Defense Forces denied ordering the evacuation of the hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip.

" At no time has the army ordered the evacuation of patients or medical teams, but in fact has proposed that any request for medical evacuation be facilitated by the army ," Israeli authorities said in a statement on Saturday.

It added that the army had talked to the director of the hospital about providing a safe passage for people who wanted to leave the facility.

Agence France-Presse reported on Saturday that Israel had given hospital authorities an hour to evacuate.

This week Israel said its forces had found a vehicle with a large number of weapons as well as what the military called the entrance to a tunnel used by the militant group. Israel says there is a Hamas command center under the hospital, but the militant group and hospital staff have denied this.

The Israeli military released a video on Friday that it said showed a tunnel entering the exterior of the hospital.

According to the United Nations, more than 2,000 patients, medical staff and displaced Palestinians were in the hospital on Wednesday when Israeli troops entered the facility.

Meanwhile, at least 32 Palestinians were killed on Saturday as a result of Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza, the health authority announced. Israel has again warned civilians to leave as it continues to attack Hamas in the south of the region, after taking control of its northern part.

" We're asking people to move. I know it's not easy for a lot of them, but we don't want civilians to be in the middle of the fighting, " Mark Regev, an aide to the Israeli prime minister, told MSNBC on Friday. Benjamin Netanyahu.

After the bloody attack by Hamas on October 7, Israel has vowed to destroy the militant group, which controls the Gaza Strip. During the attack, 1,200 Israelis were killed and 240 people were taken hostage.

The health authorities of Gaza announced on Friday that more than 12,000 people have been killed as a result of Israeli attacks, among them 5,000 children. The United Nations considers the figures reliable, although they are now rarely updated due to difficulties in gathering information./ VOA