An official at a hospital in northern Gaza is sounding the alarm as the building faces Israeli bombardment “from all directions” following an evacuation order while ceasefire negotiations are still ongoing.
One of the few partially functioning hospitals in the Gaza Strip is located in an area that has been under heavy military pressure from Israel for almost three months. After being hit by Israeli fire, it urgently sought help.
“We face a constant threat every day,” Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, said on Monday. “The bombing continues from all directions, hitting the building, departments and staff.”
The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
Meanwhile, at least 11 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes across the enclave on Monday, medics said.
Palestinians accuse Israel of permanently depopulating the northern Gaza Strip to create a buffer zone, something Israel denies.
Israel says its operation around the three communities on Gaza’s northern edge – Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia – targets Hamas militants.
Tom Fletcher, the United Nations aid chief, said Israeli forces had hampered efforts to deliver urgently needed aid to northern Gaza.
“The north of the Gaza Strip has been under a near-total siege for more than two months, raising the specter of famine,” he said on Monday.
“South Gaza is extremely overcrowded, leading to terrible living conditions and even greater humanitarian needs as winter sets in.”
Gaps in the ceasefire agreement appear to be narrowing
Differences between Israel and Hamas over a possible Gaza ceasefire have narrowed, according to statements from Israeli and Palestinian officials on Monday, although key disagreements have not yet been resolved.
A new attempt by mediators Egypt, Qatar and the United States to end the fighting and release Israeli and foreign hostages has gained momentum this month, although no breakthrough has been reported so far.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that progress had been made in ongoing hostage negotiations with Hamas in Gaza, but he did not know how long it would take for the results.
Talks to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas have resumed in Cairo, and sources close to the negotiations say an agreement could be signed in the coming days. Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip hope this round of talks will lead to an end to the war so that life can resume.
During a speech in Israel’s Knesset, Netanyahu said Israel had achieved “great successes” militarily on several fronts and that military pressure on Hamas had caused its leaders to soften their earlier demands.
The prime minister said, amid heckles from opposition members, that Israel had consolidated its position as a “regional power.”
A Palestinian official familiar with the talks said that while some points of contention had been resolved, the identities of some of the Palestinian prisoners that Israel would release in exchange for hostages had not yet been clarified, nor had the exact deployment of Israeli troops in Gaza.
The duration of the ceasefire has been a fundamental sticking point in several rounds of failed negotiations. Hamas wants an end to the war, while Israel first wants an end to Hamas’ rule over Gaza.
“The issue of completely ending the war has not yet been resolved,” the Palestinian official said.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which, according to Israel, killed 1,200 people and took 251 hostage to Gaza.
Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has since killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to health authorities in the Hamas-controlled enclave. Most of the 2.3 million residents have been displaced and much of the Gaza Strip lies in ruins.
