Gaza's biggest hospital evacuated as 'over 80 killed in airstrikes on refugee camp'

The United Nations has said “civilians cannot and should not have to bear this any longer,” after dozens of people were killed in an airstrike on a refugee camp in northern Gaza, ITV News' Sejal KariaI reports

• More than 80 people have been killed in two airstrikes on a refugee camp in Jabaliya, one of which hit a United Nations-run school, Hamas health officials said

• The United Nations has condemned the strike, with UN humanitarian affairs chief Martin Griffiths saying: "Civilians cannot and should not have to bear this any longer."

• The Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) is continuing its search for Hamas' command centre in Al-Shifa hospital, which has been evacuated. 52 patients have died since fuel ran out

• US President Joe Biden says he has revived talks with US officials with the aim of working towards a two-state solution, adding that a ceasefire is "not peace".

• More than 11,300 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war between Israel and proscribed terror group Hamas.

• At least 1,200 people were killed in Israel, following Hamas' October 7 attack in the south of the country.

Hundreds of patients, doctors and those sheltering from airstrikes have been evacuated from Gaza's biggest hospital, while elsewhere dozens have been killed in a strike on a refugee camp.

Israeli troops stormed the facility on Wednesday in search of a Hamas command centre that Israel alleges is underneath the building.

Now only a small crew remains to care for those too sick to move are left in the building - after 52 patients were reported to have died after the hospital ran out of fuel used for generators.

Palestinian officials and the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have given conflicting versions about what prompted the mass exodus from the hospital.

One eyewitness said he and others "left at gunpoint", adding that he saw Israeli forces detain three men, and the Hamas-run health ministry said the military had given people an hour's notice to leave.

However, the IDF says it did not order an evacuation, adding that it had been asked by al-Shifa hospital's director to help those who would like to leave do so by a secure route.

Before the departure, nearly 7,000 people were trapped there with little food, including patients, staff and civilian families, people, including medical patients in serious condition.

“The hospital has become a giant prison,” Hospital Director Mohammed Abu Selmia said. “We are surrounded by death.”

IDF spokesperson Col. Richard Hecht acknowledged that the troops' search for traces of Hamas operations in the hospital was going slowly, adding: “It’s going to take time.”

The military said it found the body of one of the hostages abducted by Hamas, 65-year-old Yehudit Weiss, in a building adjacent to al-Shifa, where it said it also found assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades.

It did not give the cause of her death. The IDF also said its soldiers in Gaza recovered the body of a 19-year-old soldier who was reportedly abducted by Hamas during its October 7 attack.

It said Noa Marciano was found by troops adjacent to the al-Shifa Hospital, and claims she was killed by Hamas.

Elsewhere in northern Gaza, dozens of people were killed in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp when what witnesses described as an Israeli airstrike hit a crowded UN shelter in the main combat zone.

At least 50 people were reportedly killed in a strike early on Saturday morning at the UNRWA-run Fakhoura school, where many Palestinians were sheltering, according to a Gaza health ministry official.

Another strike on a different building inside the camp killed 32 people from the same family, 19 of whom were children, the official added.

Describing the strike on the school, survivor Ahmed Radwan said: “The scenes were horrifying. Corpses of women and children were on the ground. Others were screaming for help.”

Photos from a local hospital showed more than 20 bodies wrapped in bloodstained sheets. The Israeli military, which had warned Jabaliya residents and others in a social media post in Arabic to leave, said only that its troops were active in the Jabaliya area “with the aim of hitting terrorists”.

It rarely comments on individual strikes, saying only that it targets Hamas while trying to minimise civilian harm. “Receiving horrifying images & footage of scores of people killed and injured in another UNRWA school sheltering thousands of displaced," Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on X, formerly Twitter, pleading for a humanitarian ceasefire. “Civilians cannot and should not have to bear this any longer,” UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths wrote.

Israel has agreed to allow two tanker trucks carrying 60,000 litres of fuel, into the Gaza Strip each day - of this, 10,000 litres will be used to power the enclave’s communications network, a US State Department official said.

Before this week, Israel had completely prohibited fuel from entering Gaza, fearing it could be commandeered by Hamas and used against them.

Israel has repeatedly struck residential areas and infrastructure, in its war against Hamas, as it says the group is using civilians as human shields.

At least 41 people have been killed after an airstrike hit an area in the Nuseirat refugee camp

The IDF has continued to expand its offensive in Gaza City, with the military warning in a social media post in Arabic that residents of two neighbourhoods in the east and north and the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya must evacuate for their safety.

It said military activities would be paused briefly to allow them to leave.

Earlier in the week, the Israeli defence minister had said troops had completed operations in the west of Gaza City.

Attacks also continued in the south of the Gaza Strip, which the IDF told civilians was a safe place to flee to, with an Israeli airstrike hitting a residential building on the outskirts of the town of Khan Younis.

The strike killed at least 26 Palestinians, according to a doctor at the hospital where the bodies were taken.

The airstrikes have left over 11,000 people dead and flattened neighbourhoods throughout Gaza - the victims are often civilian Palestinians, many of whom have yet to be found.

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