Israeli forces attacked southern Gaza overnight, the military said on Tuesday, targeting the Khan Younis area, which had seen rockets fired into Israel the day before.
The attack came after the Israeli military ordered an evacuation of eastern Khan Yunis and the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Such orders typically indicate the military is planning a ground assault, but the military did not say on Tuesday whether it would send troops into Khan Yunis, an area that Israeli forces invaded earlier in the war but have since evacuated.
Evacuation Notice Avichay Adraee, the Israeli military’s Arab media spokesman, posted on social media late Monday that people in the designated area “must be evacuated immediately” to ensure their safety. The area includes the European Gaza Hospital, causing dozens of patients and medical staff there to flee.
Doctors at the hospital, located near Khan Yunis, said late Monday that they too had been ordered to evacuate. The Israeli military said in a statement Tuesday morning that it had “no intention of evacuating European hospitals.”
Source: Israeli military announcement
By Leanne Abraham
After razing large swathes of Khan Yunis in a major offensive early this year, Israeli forces withdrew, claiming to have destroyed Hamas forces there. But Israeli commanders have repeatedly sent troops back into areas they were supposed to control to crush resurgent Hamas militants.
The evacuation order came after the Israeli military reported that at least 20 rockets were fired at Israel from southern Gaza and said it had responded with artillery fire, hitting the source of the rocket launches.
Most of Gaza’s population of approximately 2.2 million people were displaced during the war; many were forced to flee multiple times under evacuation orders or to escape fighting.
The United Nations condemned Monday’s evacuation order. “This shows once again that no place in Gaza is safe,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for the UN secretary-general. told reporters in New YorkHe added that the announcement underscored the need for a ceasefire. “This is yet another stop in this deadly cycle of campaigns that the people of Gaza have to go through regularly,” he added.
Dr. Mohammed Halala, an emergency doctor at the European Gaza Hospital, shared videos with The New York Times on Monday showing injured patients in the hospital being transferred onto stretchers, others being wheeled out and rooms in chaos as a hasty evacuation took place. He estimated there were about 600 patients in the hospital, and said he was still there, overseeing the evacuation.
In a message sent early Tuesday morning, Dr. Harala said he heard bombing nearby and that injured patients were still arriving at the hospital despite evacuation orders.
A doctor at Nasser Hospital, about six miles away, reported “massive chaos” and fighting in the emergency room when ambulances arrived with patients from European Gaza hospitals, who had to compete for care with patients arriving from the region.
The doctor, Hina Cheema, a Pakistani-American who is on a humanitarian mission in Nasser, said the evacuation was complicated because the roads in the area have been largely destroyed and are now crowded with people fleeing, and unstable patients are at risk of dying during the transfer. She and Dr. Harala both said that under current conditions, it takes about 30 minutes to drive from the European Gaza Hospital to Nasser.
Shéhérazade Kaoues, a spokesman for the European Gaza Hospital, said the hospital has about 300 to 400 beds. FAJR Sciencea U.S.-based nonprofit that has been organizing humanitarian medical missions to Gaza. But she said many more sick and displaced people were sheltering there before the evacuation order came.
Ms. Kavous said her organization had three foreign medical volunteers in European Gaza, but all had been evacuated to safe houses.
In May, about 16 international medical staff were stranded at the European Gaza Hospital for about two weeks after Israel withdrew. Capture of Rafah border crossing Egypt. The hospital was not ordered to evacuate, said Adam Hamawi, an American doctor who worked at the hospital at the time. He wrote to President Biden about the dire danger in Gaza, saying No one is safe. Including civilians and humanitarian workers.
Dr. Mohammed Tahir is a medical worker stranded in Gaza in May. is an orthopedic and peripheral nerve surgeon from the UK who is currently on his second medical mission with Fajr Scientific at the European Gaza Hospital. On Monday, he said he had been evacuated to a safe house. Video Information “My feelings are disbelief, heartbreak, sadness,” he posted on social media and shared with The Times. “I have literally left my patients behind at EGH and I don’t know who will take care of them.”
He described treating patients with complex injuries, including bone infections, before being evacuated and expressed uncertainty about their fate. “These people can get sick very quickly and could die within days,” he said.
Neil MacFarquhar Contributed reporting.
