Israel pounded Gaza overnight with deadly attacks targeting displaced people in two camps and a school, as it ordered the forced evacuation of one of the last hospitals barely operating in the enclave’s besieged north.
The military launched a wave of attacks on the so-called “safe zone” of al-Mawasi in the south, setting refugee tents ablaze in a drone attack that killed seven people, with further strikes on a civilian car and a vehicle carrying security personnel killing four others.
In separate attacks, the military targeted a school housing displaced people in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing one person. It also killed four people in an area north of the camp, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The raids capped a bloody 24 hours in the Strip, with medical sources telling Wafa news agency that a total of 50 people had been killed since early Sunday.
As the attacks continued, the military ordered the closure and forced evacuation of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, endangering about 400 civilians, including babies in incubators.
The hospital is one of the few still functioning in the north, where thousands of people have been trapped under a punishing siege for nearly three months.
Wafa reported on Sunday that Israeli forces had been targeting the hospital with bombs, artillery shells and sniper fire, specifically striking the women’s, maternity, and neonatal wards, killing three civilians.
The head of the hospital, Hussam Abu Safia, told news agency Reuters that the military was directly targeting fuel tanks, which could potentially “cause a large explosion and mass casualties of the civilians inside”.
Obeying the order to shut down was “next to impossible” because there were not enough ambulances to get patients out, he said.