The director of Al-Quds hospital in Gaza has refused Israels orders to evacuate thousands of displaced Palestinians and injured patients.
The hospital was warned on Sunday by the Israeli military to evacuate patients and all staff immediately as they were threatened with a “bombardment.”
The hospital’s director, Bashar Murad told Palestinian state-news agency (WAFA) that they have refused to obey the order as some patients are too fragile to be moved.
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The Palestinian Red Crescent Society has said Israeli military informed them the Al-Quds hospital is going to be “bombarded.”
They added, “PRCS has just received serious threats from the occupation authorities to immediately evacuate al Quds Hospital in the Gaza Strip, as it is going to be bombarded.”
Warplanes are bombing roads to the al-Quds hospital and to the as Shifa medical facility which is packed with thousands of patients and they have nowhere to go.
The Shifa hospital has tens of thousands sheltering in Shifa and is over loaded with patients after being wounded in the Israeli military strikes.
Mahmoud al-Sawah, who is sheltering at the Shifa hospital, said, “Reaching the hospital has become increasingly difficult.
“It seems they want to cut off the area.”
Another resident, Abdallah Sayed, said the Israeli bombing over the past 48 hours was “the most violent and intense” since the war started three weeks ago.
The director-general of the World Health Organization has said that the reports coming out of Gaza of the “evacuation threats” at al Quds Hospital are “deeply concerning.”
The WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a message to the Israeli authorities, “We reiterate – it’s impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives.
“Under international humanitarian law, healthcare must always be protected.”
AFP reported the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) military spokesman Daniel Hagari told journalists, “Hamas wages war from hospitals” in Gaza to conduct their operations.
Hagari specifically identified Al-Shifa hospital as where Hamas are conducting operations, he said, “Terrorists move freely” in Shifa and other hospitals.
