Israeli army orders hospitals in northern Gaza to forcibly evacuate without safe passage

The Israeli army ordered three hospitals working in northern Gaza to forcibly evacuate within 24 hours without providing any safe passage for the medical staff, patients and displaced persons present there.

"Kamal Adwan, al-Rantisi and al-Awda were among the hospitals that were ordered to be evacuated within only 24 hours," the Palestinian health ministry said in a press statement sent to The New Arab.

"The new evacuation orders means that the north of Gaza would witness a health disaster as the Israeli occupation is continuing his crimes against our people there," the ministry added.

Overnight, the Israeli army called Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, and demanded he evacuate the hospital within 24 hours.

"If you do not comply with our orders, you expose yourself, staff medical, patients and all those who are inside the hospital to the risk of death or arrest," the Israeli officer said, according to Abu Safiya.

To avoid repeating the massacres committed by the Israeli army in Al-Shifa Hospital after storming it last April, Abu Safiya decided to evacuate the hospital despite the difficulty and danger.

"However, none of those present in the hospital were able to leave because the Israeli army surrounded the area by continuing to shoot everywhere and at everything that moved inside and outside the hospital," Abu Safiya said to TNA.

"The decision to evacuate is dangerous in such a difficult and bad security situation, and we do not know what to do [...] There are hundreds of patients, medical staff and displaced people," he stressed.

A state of terror

Terror has spread among the people in the three hospitals, especially in light of continued Israeli attacks on Jabalia.

Mohammed Abu Odeh, a displaced man from the town of Beit Hanoun, said that when the Israeli army began its military operation in Jabalia five days ago, he was forced to seek refuge in the Indonesian Hospital.

"I did not know that danger would follow us here as well [...] I do not know where I should go or how we can escape death, we are tired of everything and we no longer have the energy to survive," he lamented to TNA.

Abu Odeh was unable to leave the hospital because the Israeli army attacks anyone who tries to leave. He says, while carrying his child, "How can they [Israeli army] order us to evacuate and target us if we try to escape [...] They want to kill us, no doubt about that."

Mariam al-Za'anin, from the town of Beit Lahia, is currently receiving treatment at al-Awda Hospital after being injured in an Israeli bombardment that targeted her house four days ago.

"The Israeli army targeted our house and killed a number of the displaced people who were with us, while I and all my family members were injured while we are receiving treatment, and we cannot move," she said to TNA.

"Today, the Israeli army is forcing us to leave, so how can we move while we are wearing bandages, and where do we go? There is no safe place in Gaza," she said.

Both Abu Odeh and al-Za'anin are refusing to leave for the southern areas of the Gaza Strip, saying they prefer to die where they are if the Israeli army wants to kill them. 

On her part, Hidaya Abu Al-Ma'za, another displaced woman from Jabalia, decided to walk with her six children to escape to the beach in Gaza City.

"The army killed my husband three months ago in a bombing that targeted him and a group of unarmed civilians. Today, they want to kill us all, but I will continue to flee until I survive this war and tell our story to the world," the 40-year-old mother of six remarked to TNA.

Abu Al-Ma'za said that she can barely provide food for her children due to the siege and starvation imposed by the Israeli army on all residents of the northern Gaza Strip.

"But I will not surrender, and I will never leave the northern Gaza Strip. I will stay here," she added.

 Siege on Jabalia

Local Palestinian sources said that the Israeli army tightened its siege on the city and camp of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, killing at least 30 Palestinians so far.

Security and medical sources noted that the Israeli army continues to target Jabalia with artillery, warplanes and drones. 

The Palestinian Civil Defence said in a statement that its crews were able to retrieve 30 bodies of Palestinian civilians who were killed by Israeli aircraft and artillery in Jabalia, stressing that there are several other victims still trapped in the streets and in homes under attack.

"There is no end to hell in northern Gaza and there are no less than 400,000 people trapped in the area," Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said in a press statement.

"The recent evacuation orders issued by the Israeli authorities are forcing people to flee again and again, especially from Jabalia camp," he added.

He stressed there is no safe place anywhere in Gaza, noting that UNRWA shelters are forced to close for the first time since Israel's war began.