Panic as Gaza’s al-Shifa evacuates, Israel army denies ordering it to do so | Israel-Palestine conflict News

More than 7,000 individuals, together with important sufferers, housed within the hospital that Israeli troops have besieged for days.

Israeli forces ordered docs, sufferers and displaced individuals at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital to evacuate the medical compound, forcing some to depart by gunpoint, medical sources inside the ability have advised Al Jazeera.

But in a post on X on Saturday, the Israeli army spokesperson denied it pressured anybody to depart, saying the “IDF responded to the request of the director of Shifa Hospital to allow Gazan citizens who were sheltering in the hospital and who wish to evacuate from Shifa Hospital towards the humanitarian crossing in the Gaza Strip via a secure axis”.

Mohammed Zaqout, the director-general of hospitals in Gaza, reiterated to Al Jazeera: “I categorically deny these false allegations [from the Israeli army] … I am telling you we were forced to leave by gunpoint.”

More than 7,000 individuals, together with sufferers in important situation and new child infants combating for his or her lives, had been sheltered inside al-Shifa. The facility has been underneath siege by Israeli troopers for a number of days.

A physician in al-Shifa advised Al Jazeera that at round 9am native time (7:00 GMT), they acquired the order from the Israelis to depart in “one hour”, however that it was “impossible” to evacuate everybody.

The state of affairs induced “a great state of panic and fear” within the hospital, Al Jazeera’s Youmna ElSayed stated, reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza. “They do not have any ambulances to transfer the patients and premature babies to the south [of Gaza].”

Those in al-Shifa embody at the least 300 sufferers, some or most of them in severe or important situation, as nicely as 1000’s of displaced households.

It additionally consists of “at least 35 premature babies who already for eight days now have been out of their incubators because of the lack of oxygen and the lack of electricity”, ElSayed stated. There had been 39 infants who had been left with out incubators; 4 died late on Friday and 5 are severely ailing now, our correspondent added.

‘Appalling’

After the Israeli army’s deadline handed on Saturday morning, Omar Zaqout, the hospital’s supervisor, advised Al Jazeera that pressured evacuations had begun and added that the scenes outdoors the ability had been “appalling”.

“We were told to leave through al-Wehda road. Dozens of dead bodies are scattered on the road,” he stated. “Many homeless people who cannot walk are left out in the open.”

Munir al-Barsh, a health care provider at al-Shifa Hospital, stated that the Israeli army warned that every one these leaving had to wave a white handkerchief and stroll in a single line.

“They were humiliated by soldiers all along the road,” al-Barsh advised Al Jazeera.

“Many of the patients were put on wheelchairs or rolling beds. Family members were forced to carry their wounded children or parents themselves … These are horrible, unprecedented scenes,” he stated.

Doctors stated the Israeli army instructed individuals to evacuate by way of al-Rashid road, not the same old road or route that individuals evacuating to the south are supposed to take — the Salah al-Din road.

“There is no transportation means in Gaza City and the northern parts because of a lack of fuel. So people are expected to evacuate on foot. And doctors are telling us it’s impossible to evacuate with this many people on foot.” ElSayed stated.

She stated Israel’s army had not supplied individuals evacuating with any technique of transportation, with any gasoline for ambulances or for any vehicles to switch sufferers, untimely infants and displaced households.

The hospital has been with out meals, water, electrical energy and oxygen for at the least per week, whereas Israeli troops and tanks raided the ability during the last couple of days.

Israel claimed Hamas has a command centre beneath the hospital, however discovered no proof to assist its declare. Hamas and hospital employees have at all times rejected the Israeli assertions.

Zaqout added that the dearth of water provide at al-Shifa has led to what he referred to as an “absence of hygiene and cleanliness”.

“The electrical power has been out more than three weeks. Infants and newborn babies are left without oxygen. It is nothing but a medieval cave,” he stated.

The Palestinian Authority, that governs the occupied West Bank, launched a press release in response to the evacuations.

“The evacuation of al-Shifa deepens the humanitarian and environmental catastrophe Gaza faces,” it stated. Israel’s actions symbolize “another hideous facet of the crimes of ethnic cleansing and genocide committed by the occupation forces against Palestinians,” it added.