On the 15th, Israeli troops forcibly broke into the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza Strip. Previously, a large number of refugees, patients and medical staff had been evacuated, but there were still critically ill patients, newborns and other people in the hospital who could not be evacuated.
According to Reuters, Nasser Hospital is the largest hospital still operating in the Gaza Strip.
On 11 February, smoke rose from the Israeli attack on the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Yasser Cudi).
Israeli army search
IDF spokesman Daniel Hagari reported on the 15th that the Israeli army deduced from several "reliable intelligence" that Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) militants hid some of the Israeli personnel detained in the Nasser hospital; On the same day, the Israeli army carried out a "precise and limited" operation inside the hospital, arresting dozens of "armed men", three of whom had been involved in Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
Hagari said the search of the hospital was continuing and that Israeli forces had seized a number of grenades and artillery shells.
The health department of the Gaza Strip said on the 15th that after the Israeli army broke into the southern wall of Nasser Hospital, about 460 medical staff, patients and family members were evacuated to an older building in the hospital without admission facilities. They are in a difficult situation, with no food, no infant formula, and severe water shortages.
Palestinians inspect the ruins of Israeli airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah on February 12. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Yasser Cudi).
Ashraf Kidra, a spokesman for Gaza's health department, said the hospital would run out of fuel to generate electricity within 24 hours, putting the lives of six critically ill patients and three newborns at risk.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said on social media that the Israeli army shelled Nasser Hospital in the early morning of the 15th, leaving the hospital in a mess, killing and wounding several people, and "our medical staff had to leave the patients and flee the hospital." A staff member of the aid group was detained at an Israeli army checkpoint and another person was missing.
Khalid Arser, a surgeon who remained in the hospital, told the Associated Press that Israeli artillery shells hit a ward, killing a patient and injuring several others. "The situation is getting worse by the minute. ”
Since the outbreak of a new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict on October 7 last year, the Israeli army has been claiming that Hamas militants are hiding in hospitals and other public places, using civilians as cover to fight the Israeli army, and using this as a reason to bomb and attack hospitals and their surrounding areas in the Gaza Strip, resulting in serious casualties**. Hamas and the hospitals have denied the Israeli claims, and the Israeli army has not found substantial evidence in places such as the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
On 13 February, people affected by attacks by the Israeli army fled their homes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Yasser Cudi).
Refugees flee
Only a few hospitals in the Gaza Strip are currently partially functioning. The World Health Organization says Nasser Hospital is vital to "the entire Gaza Strip."
It has been almost a week since Israeli forces surrounded Nasser Hospital and bombed it and its surroundings. On the 14th, Israeli forces demanded that thousands of refugees who were still hiding in hospitals leave.
According to Reuters, about 2,000 Palestinians evacuated from Nasser Hospital arrived in Rafah, a city bordering Egypt at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip, on the night of the 14th, and another part fled to Deir al-Bailah, a city in central Gaza.
Raid Abid, who was seriously wounded in the abdomen, told The Associated Press that he was forced to evacuate, endured pain, queued outside the hospital for hours, and walked for hours after being cleared by Israeli forces to interrogate him, and finally arrived in Rafah, where he was admitted to a hospital.
On 13 February, people affected by attacks by the Israeli army fled their homes in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Xinhua News Agency (photo by Yasser Cudi).
Khan Younis is the second largest city in the Gaza Strip. Since the outbreak of the current round of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the Israeli army has launched a large-scale attack on the Gaza Strip, forcing a large number of residents in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to seek refuge in Khan Younis. As the fighting continued in Khan Younis, the people continued their journey south to Rafah to escape the fighting. Currently, more than half of the 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip live in Rafah, a city of 300,000 people.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Israeli military and security departments to submit a plan for a ground operation in Rafah to the wartime cabinet on the 9th, and said on the 14th that a military operation would be carried out in Rafah.
According to data released by the health department of the Gaza Strip on the 15th, so far in this round of conflict, Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip have caused more than 2860,000 people died, more than 680,000 people were injured.
* Xinhua News Agency (Guo Qian).
Editor-in-charge: Luo Qiuxu.
Responsible proofreader: Guo Yi.
Editor-in-chief: He Xiaoyu.
Final review: Editorial Board Member Liu Chao.