CAIRO/GAZA: Israel issued new evacuation orders late Sunday for Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, forcing more families to flee, as forces intended to crack down on the Hamas militant group and others operating in the area. In recent days, Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza, the most since the start of the 10-month war, sparking outrage from Palestinians, the United Nations and aid workers over the reduction of humanitarian zones and the absence of safe areas.
The municipality of Deir Al-Balah says that Israeli evacuation orders have displaced 250,000 people so far.
Israeli military strikes killed at least seven Palestinians on Monday, medics said. Two were killed in Deir Al-Balah, where around a million people were sheltering, two in a school in the Al-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 shelter, for fear of bombardment.
The hospital is located near the evacuation notice area.
In a statement on X on Sunday evening, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the blast about 250 meters from the MSF-supported Al-Aqsa Hospital had sparked panic.
“As a result, MSF is considering suspending wound care for the time being while trying to maintain life-saving treatment.”
Of the approximately 650 patients, only 100 remained in the hospital, including seven in the intensive care unit, she said, citing the Gaza Health Ministry.
“This situation is unacceptable. Al-Aqsa has been operating well beyond capacity for several weeks due to a lack of alternatives for patients. All warring parties must respect the hospital as well as patients' access to medical care,” it added.
DIPLOMATIC POWER
Sawasn Abu Afesh said she and her children have now been displaced 11 times.
“I left half of my children behind with my furniture and now I am with my little ones and my daughter, only God can help us…I have no money for transport, I will go to area 17 where my family lives my leg. I took my children and three stayed behind. I don't know where,” said the woman.
The escalation comes with little hope of an end to the war in sight, as mediator diplomacy with Qatar, Egypt and the United States has so far failed to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas, whose leaders have blamed each other for the lack of agreement.
Neither Hamas nor Israel agreed to several compromises put forward by mediators at Sunday's talks in Cairo, two Egyptian security sources said.
However, a senior US official described the talks as “constructive” and said they were conducted in a spirit on all sides to reach a “final and workable agreement”.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group rejected the new terms set by Israel during the talks, which the group did not participate in, adding that US comments about an imminent ceasefire deal were false and meant to serve electoral purposes.
US President Joe Biden and his administration are facing growing protests in the US over aid to Israel ahead of the November election.
According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war. The overcrowded enclave has been destroyed and most of its 2.3 million people have been displaced multiple times and are facing acute shortages of food and medicine, aid agencies say.
The war was started by a Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage, according to Israeli records.
