Israeli military gives al-Shifa hospital one hour to evacuate
Jerusalem, Nov 18 (EFE).- The Israeli military has given doctors, patients and displaced people in al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza one hour to evacuate, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.
The head of the orthopedics department, Adnan al-Bursh, quoted by the ministry, said the order has created a state of panic and fear inside the hospital and stressed that doctors will not leave the hospital without patients.
The facility houses patients, some critically ill, as well as thousands of displaced people.
The director-general of the ministry, Munir al-Bursh, said that Israeli troops have also taken bodies from the hospital morgue, as well as from the cemetery excavated within the perimeter of the medical facilities.
The Israeli army maintains that al-Shifa hides a Hamas command center and is therefore a military target.
In recent days, the military has besieged and made several incursions into the facilities in which it claims to have discovered weapons and a tunnel used by the Islamist group Hamas — claims disputed by both hospital staff and Hamas.
More than 16,000 people have died in the Gaza Strip in the 43 days of war between Israel and Hamas, according to the ministry on Saturday.
A spokesperson in Gaza told EFE that the real number is much higher and stressed that these figures are only “estimates.”
He insisted that at least 3,500 people remain under the rubble of buildings and that the Israeli attacks continue.
Israel declared war on Hamas on Oct. 7 after an assault by the Islamist group that killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped another 240.
Since then, Israel’s air, naval and ground forces have relentlessly attacked the Gaza Strip, which in addition to the deaths and injuries has caused the displacement of 1.7 million Gazans, more than two-thirds of the total population. EFE
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