Gaza:
Hundreds of people evacuated Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital on foot on Saturday, an AFP journalist at the scene saw, after the hospital director said the Israeli army had ordered the hospital to be emptied.
The Hamas-run Health Ministry said in a statement that there were still 120 injured people at the facility, along with an unspecified number of premature babies, adding that it was in contact with the Red Cross about the babies.
Officials said a few medical staff members remained behind to care for those who could not be moved.
Columns of sick and wounded – some amputees – displaced people, doctors and nurses, made their way to the coast.
The Israeli army denied ordering the evacuation.
The army “complied with the request of the director of Shifa Hospital to allow additional Gazans who were in the hospital and would like to evacuate to do so,” an army statement said.
The United Nations estimated that 2,300 patients, staff and displaced Palestinians were sheltering in Al-Shifa before Israeli forces moved in on Wednesday.
Israel accuses Hamas of orchestrating attacks from shelters beneath the sprawling health complex, and its forces are combing buildings for evidence to back up their claims.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza and has an armed wing, has consistently denied using hospitals as bases for fighters.
Hamas health officials say dozens of patients have died in hospital due to power outages caused by fuel shortages caused by heavy fighting in northern Gaza.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)