At least 11,240 Palestinians have been killed, including 4,630 children and 3,130 women, within the Gaza Strip by Israeli military actions since 7 October, the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said on Monday.
Israeli forces have reached the gates of Gaza’s largest hospital as hundreds of patients, including dozens of babies, remained trapped inside. Thousands of people have fled al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, but health officials said the remaining patients were dying due to energy shortages amid intense fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants. At least 32 patients, including three premature babies, had died over the past three days, Gaza’s health ministry said.
There are between 600 and 650 inpatients at Shifa, as well as 200 to 500 health workers, and about 1,500 displaced people seeking shelter there, according to information shared with the World Health Organization. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have repeatedly said that Hamas operates from bunkers underneath Shifa. This has been denied by Hamas and hospital staff.
Joe Biden has said that Gaza’s largest hospital “must be protected” and called for “less intrusive action” by Israeli forces. Speaking from the Oval Office, he said: “It is my hope and expectation that there will be less intrusive action.”
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that an attempt to reach al-Quds hospital from Khan Younis in order to evacuate patients has been abandoned due to “continuing shelling and shooting”.
All of the hospitals in northern Gaza are “out of service” amid fuel shortages and intense combat, the health ministry said on Monday.
The director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) Thomas White has warned that all of the group’s aid operations in Gaza will be shut down in the next 48 hours unless fuel is allowed in. UNRWA’s commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, said the agency’s fuel depot in Gaza has run dry and will no longer be able to resupply hospitals, remove sewage and provide drinking water.
