JERUSALEM
— Hundreds of displaced Palestinians fled one of the Gaza Strip’s last
functioning hospitals Wednesday after the Israeli military ordered them to
leave and threatened further action to stop what it said was Hamas activity
there.
اضافة اعلان
Thousands
of Palestinians have sheltered at the Nasser Medical Complex in the southern
city of Khan Younis for weeks, and many are terrified that Israeli forces will
bombard or storm the complex, said Mohammed Abu Lehya, a doctor there. Previous
Israeli warnings to evacuate hospitals, including Shifa, the largest in Gaza,
have often preceded military raids.
Hanin
Abu Tiba, 27, an English teacher sheltering at the hospital, described dire
conditions inside, with food running out and aid convoys all but unable to
deliver supplies. In text messages overnight, she said that she had seen an
Israeli military vehicle outside the hospital gate.
“I
am terrified to leave the hospital and get shot,” she said. But inside the complex,
she added, “the electricity is cutting out, and the water and the canned food
is almost gone. We don’t know what to do.”
Dr.
Abu Lehya, in a WhatsApp message Wednesday, called conditions at the hospital
“beyond imagination.”
The
tensions at the hospital played out as Israel carried out extensive airstrikes
in southern Lebanon on Wednesday in response to a deadly rocket attack on
northern Israel. The rocket attack struck a military base near the city of
Safed, killing a soldier and wounding eight people, Israeli authorities said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion quickly fell on
Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia allied with Hamas.
Israeli
forces have been expanding their offensive in Khan Younis for weeks, saying
they are targeting Hamas militants in the city. Israeli leaders have also vowed
to invade Rafah, farther south, calling it Hamas’ last stronghold. More than
one million people have sought shelter in Rafah, raising international alarm at
what could happen should Israel begin a full-scale military operation there.
The
Israeli military on Wednesday accused Hamas of conducting military activity on
the grounds of Nasser Hospital and said the area “was used to hold hostages.”
“We
demand the immediate cessation of all military activity in the area of the
hospital and the immediate departure of military operatives from it,” the
Israeli military said in a statement.
The
military also instructed civilians to evacuate, though it said it had not
called on patients and medical staff to leave. It called for civilians
sheltering at the hospital to go to “safer spaces” in southern and central Gaza
and said that Israel had “opened a secure route to evacuate the civilian
population.”
A
video shared on social media Wednesday and verified by The New York Times
showed crowds of people, many carrying belongings and bedding, leaving the
hospital as explosions sounded in the background.
But
many Palestinians and aid groups say that no place in Gaza is safe, and doctors
at the hospital and the Gaza Health Ministry said that some people who tried to
flee the hospital compound Tuesday were shot at by Israeli soldiers, who killed
some and wounded others.
The
Israeli military did not respond to questions about those reports.
As
Israeli troops approached the hospital, negotiators met in Cairo for a second
day of discussions aimed at reaching an agreement that could pause the fighting
and free the remaining hostages taken to Gaza during the Hamas-led Oct. 7
attack on Israel. But Israel and Hamas do not appear to be close to a deal.
An
Egyptian official briefed on the talks after the first day of high-level
negotiations Tuesday ended without an agreement described the tenor of the
negotiations as positive.
On
Wednesday, however, the Israeli news media reported that Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu had pulled the Israeli delegation from the talks — something
that his office, in a statement, did not directly address. But the statement
said that “Prime Minister Netanyahu is committed that Israel will not submit to
Hamas’ delusional demands.”
The
news reports infuriated a group representing relatives of the Israeli hostages,
the Hostage and Missing Families Forum, which has been pressing Netanyahu to do
more to secure the release of the captives. To pull out of the talks, the group
said, would be to “consciously sacrifice the lives of the abductees.” It said
it planned to protest outside the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem.
Mahmoud
Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, which partly administers the
Israeli-occupied West Bank, on Wednesday urged Hamas and Israel to reach an
agreement, saying it could prevent a devastating Israeli incursion into Rafah.
“We
call on everyone, especially the Hamas movement, to quickly complete the deal
so that we can protect our people and remove all obstacles,” Abbas said in a
statement reported by Wafa, the authority’s official news agency. Abbas leads
Fatah, a political party that is a rival of Hamas.
With
food, water, and medicine in desperately short supply in Gaza, the Biden
administration on Wednesday called on Israel to stop blocking flour shipments
to UNRWA, the main UN aid agency for Palestinians in Gaza.
Israel’s
far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said Tuesday that he had issued a
directive not to transfer flour to UNRWA, citing allegations that some of its
employees were tied to Hamas, including 12 accused of having roles in the
October 7 attack and its aftermath.
About
1,050 containers, most filled with flour, were held up at the Israeli port of
Ashdod, Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, told reporters Friday. That
would be enough to feed 1.1 million Palestinians for a month, he said.
At a
news conference Wednesday, Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national
security adviser, said, “That flour has not moved the way that we had expected
it would move. We expect that Israel will follow through on its commitment to
get that flour into Gaza.”
At
Nasser Hospital, some medical workers were packing their belongings and
preparing their families to flee.
“We
are all scared,” said Dr. Mohammad Abu Moussa, a radiologist.
But
he said that even though he was worried about an assault on the hospital, he
and his wife had decided to remain for now. They and their two surviving
children — a third was killed in an airstrike in October — have been staying at
the hospital for weeks.
“I
have no other choice,” Abu Moussa said. “I don’t have anywhere to go in Rafah,
and I have young children, and they can’t walk long distances like that.”
Nasser
was treating about 400 patients Wednesday, including about 80 in intensive
care, with 35 on dialysis, said Rik Peeperkorn, the World Health Organization’s
representative for the West Bank and Gaza.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
