Patients flee one of Gaza's last functioning hospitals after Israeli warning

One of Gaza's last functioning hospitals has been emptying as Israel has ordered the evacuation of nearby areas.

Patients and people sheltering in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, in the central city of Deir al-Balah, have been leaving in fear that the site may be engulfed in fighting or become the target of a raid.

While the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has not ordered an evacuation of the hospital itself, it has done so for nearby areas.

In a post on X on Monday, Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee said: "The forces of the 7th Brigade Combat Team continue to expand the scope of the fighting on the outskirts of Deir al-Balah."

Sharing a map of an area of the city the previous day, he wrote: "To all residents and displaced persons present in the Deir al-Balah neighbourhood in Block 128 in the area specified in the map.

"The IDF will act forcefully against Hamas and the terrorist organizations in your area. For your own safety, evacuate immediately to the west. The area you are in is considered a dangerous combat zone."

Israeli forces have invaded several hospitals in Gaza over the course of the 10-month-old war, accusing Hamas of using them for military purposes, allegations denied by Palestinian health officials.

Israeli evacuation orders now cover around 84% of Gaza's territory, according to the United Nations, which estimates that around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have been forced from their homes.

Many have been displaced multiple times. Hundreds of thousands of people have packed into swollen tent camps along the coast where there are few if any public services.

Reporters from the Associated Press saw people fleeing the hospital and surrounding areas on Monday, many of them on foot.

Some could be seen pushing patients on stretchers or carrying sick children, while others held bags of clothes, mattresses and blankets. Four schools in the area are also being evacuated.

"Where will we get medicine?" Adliyeh al-Najjar said as she rested outside the hospital gate. “Where will patients like me go?”Fatimah al-Attar fought back tears as she left the hospital compound heading in the direction of the tent camps. “Our fate is to die,” she said. “There is no place for us to go. There is no safe place.”The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that since Friday the Israeli military has issued three evacuation orders for over 19 neighbourhood in northern Gaza and in Deir al Balah, affecting more than 8,000 people staying in these areas.The order affects an area where UN and other humanitarian centres are located, the Al Aqsa hospital, two clinics, three wells, one water reservoir and one desalination plant, said Jens Laerke, a spokesman for OCHA. “This effectively upends a whole lifesaving humanitarian hub,” he added.

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Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), said an explosion around 250 meters from the hospital on Sunday caused panic, accelerating the exodus.“As a result, MSF is considering whether to suspend wound care for the time being, while trying to maintain life-saving treatment,” the charity said. The hospital says it was treating over 600 patients before the evacuation orders, which apply to residential areas about a kilometre away. Around 100 patients remain, including seven in intensive care and eight in the children's ward.

The Israeli military said it was operating against Hamas in Deir al-Balah and working to dismantle its remaining infrastructure there.

It said the evacuation orders were issued to protect civilians, and did not include nearby hospitals or medical facilities. It said it had also informed Palestinian health officials that the facilities did not need to be evacuated.The army has excluded hospitals from past evacuation orders, but patients and others have still fled, fearing for their safety.

Israel says Hamas and other militants hide inside hospitals, which have also served as shelters for thousands of displaced people, and use them for military purposes.

The army has raided a number of medical facilities since the start of the war and has provided some evidence that militants were inside some of them. Medical staff deny the allegations and accuse the army of reckless disregard for civilians.

Hospitals can lose their protected status under international law if they are used for military purposes, but any operations against them must be proportional and seek to spare civilians.

Only 16 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are even partially functioning, according to the World Health Organisation.

Israel’s military said on Monday that it had discovered weapons in a residential apartment and dismantled an underground Hamas tunnel about 700 meters long.Local health officials said an Israeli airstrike hit a group of people on the seashore in Gaza City, killing at least seven men while they were fishing.

Another strike hit a vehicle inside the Israeli-declared humanitarian zone near the southern city of Khan Younis, killing at least five people, according to a Kuwaiti field hospital, where the bodies were taken.The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on those attacks.

On Sunday, Israel and Hezbollah exchanged a bout of heavy fire, leaving three militants in Lebanon and one Israeli soldier dead.

Health officials say more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its retaliatory offensive following the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, which saw around 1,200 people killed and around 250 hostages taken to Gaza.

Hamas is still holding around 110 hostages, about a third of whom are believed to be dead, after most of the rest were freed in a temporary ceasefire last year.Israel has continued carrying out strikes across Gaza as the United States, Egypt and Qatar have tried to broker a lasting cease-fire and the release of the remaining hostages. Major gaps remain despite several months of high-level negotiations.

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