CAIRO/GAZA: Israel issued new evacuation orders for the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah late Sunday, forcing more families to flee, saying its forces intended to move against the militant Hamas movement and other groups operating in the area. Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza in recent days, the largest number since the start of the 10-month war, sparking protests from Palestinians, the United Nations and aid officials over shrinking humanitarian zones and the absence of safe areas.
The Deir al-Balah municipality says that Israeli evacuation orders have so far displaced 250,000 people.
Israeli air strikes killed at least seven Palestinians on Monday, medics said. Two were killed in Deir al-Balah, where about a million people have taken shelter, two in a school in the Nuseirat camp and three in the southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt.
The new orders forced many families and patients to leave Al-Aqsa Hospital, the main medical facility in Deir al-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of residents and displaced people have taken refuge, fearing bombardment.
The hospital is located near the area covered by the evacuation notice.
An explosion about 250 metres (820 feet) from the Al-Aqsa hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders caused panic, the medical charity said in a statement on Sunday.
As a result, MSF is considering whether wound care should be suspended for the time being, while trying to maintain life-saving treatment.
Of the approximately 650 patients, only 100 remain in hospital, including seven in the intensive care unit, the ministry said, citing the Gaza Health Ministry.
She added, “This situation is unacceptable. Al-Aqsa Hospital has been operating beyond its capacity for weeks due to the lack of alternatives for patients. All warring parties must respect the hospital, as well as the patients' right to receive medical care.”
Diplomatic impasse
Susan Abu Afash said that she and her children have now been displaced 11 times.
“I left half of my children behind next to my furniture and now I am with my young children and my daughter, only God can help us… I don't have money for transportation and I will go to District 17 where my family lives on foot. I took my children and left three of them behind. I don't know where to,” the woman said.
The escalation comes amid little hope of an end to the war anytime soon, as diplomacy by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States has so far failed to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas, whose leaders have traded blame for the failure to reach an agreement.
Two Egyptian security sources said neither Hamas nor Israel had agreed to many of the concessions offered by mediators in talks in Cairo on Sunday.
But a senior US official described the talks as “constructive,” saying they were conducted in a spirit on all sides to reach a “final and implementable agreement.”
Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the movement rejected the new conditions set by Israel during the talks, which the movement did not attend, adding that US comments about the imminent ceasefire agreement were false and aimed at serving electoral purposes.
US President Joe Biden and his administration are facing growing protests in the United States over aid to Israel ahead of the November elections.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Humanitarian agencies say the crowded enclave has been reduced to rubble, with most of its 2.3 million residents displaced multiple times and facing severe shortages of food and medicine.
The war broke out after Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, which killed 1,200 people, according to Israeli statistics, and captured more than 250 others.