Israeli troops forced the evacuation of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza and many patients, some of them on foot, arrived at another hospital miles away in Gaza City, the territory’s health ministry said Tuesday.
The Indonesian hospital is one of Gaza’s few remaining partially functioning hospitals on its northern edge, an area that has been under intense military pressure from Israel for nearly three months.
Israel says its operation around the three northern Gaza communities surrounding the hospital – Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabalia – targets Hamas militants.
Palestinians accuse Israel of permanently depopulating the northern Gaza Strip to create a buffer zone, something Israel denies.
Munir Al-Bursh, director of the Health Ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, said the Israeli army ordered hospital officials to evacuate the hospital on Monday before storming it in the early hours of Tuesday and forcing residents to leave Gaza .
He said two other medical facilities in northern Gaza, Al-Awda and Kamal Adwan hospitals, were also subject to frequent attacks by Israeli troops operating in the area.
“The occupation forces have removed the three hospitals from medical service due to the repeated attacks that have undermined them and destroyed parts of them,” Bursh said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Israeli military said it was reviewing the report.
Hospital officials refuse to evacuate and abandon patients
Since the new military offensive began on October 5, officials at the three hospitals have so far refused Israeli orders to evacuate their facilities or leave patients unattended.
Israel says it has facilitated the delivery of medical supplies, fuel and the transfer of patients to other hospitals in the enclave during this period, in collaboration with international organizations such as the World Health Organization.
Hussam Abu Safiya, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital, said they had defied a new army order to evacuate hundreds of patients, their attendants and staff, adding that the hospital was under constant Israeli fire from generators , oxygen pumps and parts of them damaged the building.
According to medics, Israeli forces have been deployed near the hospital since Monday.
Meanwhile, Israeli bombings continued elsewhere in the enclave and medics said at least nine Palestinians, including a member of the civilian rescue service, were killed in four separate military strikes across the enclave on Tuesday.
The war in Gaza was triggered 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 has since killed more than 45,200 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities. Most of the 2.3 million residents have been displaced and much of the Gaza Strip lies in ruins.
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.
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 yet been reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that progress had been made in hostage negotiations with Hamas, but he did not know how long it would take for the results.
Disagreements between Israel and Hamas over a possible ceasefire in the Gaza Strip have narrowedwere statements made by Israeli and Palestinian officials on Monday, although key differences have not yet been resolved.
