19 November,2023 08:35 AM IST | Gaza | Agencies
Al-Shifa patients and internally displaced Palestinians at the Gazan hospital on Nov 10. Pic/AFP
Patients, staff and displaced people departed Gaza's largest hospital on Saturday, health officials said, leaving behind only Israeli forces and a skeleton crew to care for those too sick to move. The exodus came the day internet and phone service was restored to the Gaza Strip, ending a telecommunications outage that forced the United Nations to shut down critical aid deliveries.
The Israeli military on Saturday denied that it ordered an evacuation of the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza after Palestinian media reports said the army had asked everyone to leave the medical complex within an hour's time.
In a post in Hebrew on X, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had "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 towards the humanitarian crossing in the Gaza Strip via a secure axis".
The military stressed that "at no point did the IDF ask to evacuate patients or medical teams". The IDF "even suggested that whenever there is a request to coordinate a medical evacuation, we will work to allow it and transfer the patients to other hospitals", the post read.
ALSO READ
Nitish shameless, stabbed Muslims in the back: Prashant Kishor
PM hails cleanliness campaigns that earned govt Rs 2,364 crore through scrap disposal
ACT will be start of journey for mission 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics
Maharashtra polls: MVA promises caste census, free cervical cancer vaccine for minor girls
Israeli airstrike kills 20 in northern Lebanon, local officials say
The army went on to say that medical teams will remain in the hospital, adding that the IDF continued to provide food, water and humanitarian aid to the medical complex overnight. IDF special forces backed by additional troops conducted an 18 hour-long operation on Wednesday against Hamas terror infrastructure at Al-Shifa.
Another premature baby has died at the hospital due to lack of proper incubation support, taking the total number of such deaths to five, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. Hospital authorities said the lack of fuel has led to the power failure of the incubation support. A total of 30 premature babies remain in the enclave's largest medical facility. Authorities are trying coordinate with the Red Cross to take the children out of the hospital.
This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever