Red Cross says nearly 8,000 people were evacuated from a Gaza hospital

Close to 8,000 displaced persons have been evacuated from the main hospital surrounded by Han Yunis in southern Gaza, where they were sheltered, the Red Cross said on February 6th.

The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Belt is beyond disaster”, said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesperson for the International Federations of Red Cross and Red Halfage Associations.

He told reporters in Geneva that the Red Cross has been told that the Al-Amal hospital, which is led by the Palestinian Red Halfhea, is widely emptied after the long siege by Israeli forces.

The eight thousand internally displaced people who were sheltered at our Palestinian Red Halfage hospital in Han Yunis... left the hospital yesterday”, he explained.

He said the Al-Amal hospital has been under siege for more than two weeks and there have been fighting and tough promotions around it. The hospital has been hit several times by attacks, including last Friday, when a member of the Palestinian Red Crescent was killed.

Close to 100 elderly, injured and fixed patients are still inside the hospital, where close to 100 staff members and volunteers are located, the Red Cross said.

Even before the evacuation, Al-Amal Hospital had faced major challenges, including the huge lack of medicine, food and water, said Della Longa.

Israel is continuing its offensive in the Gaza Strip, where 2.3 million Palestinians live. The war was postponed on October 7th after Hamas the Palestinian group declared terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union attacked the south of Israel, killing nearly 1,200 people and kidnapping another 250.

The Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled Gaza said the situation at the Nasser Hospital, located near it Al-Amal, is equally alarming.

Hospitals that under international humanitarian law are protected have been hit constantly during the Gaza war. The Israeli Army has accused Hamas of using health buildings as command centres, charges denied by the radical Palestinian group.

The Hamas-led Health Ministry has reported over 27,000 deaths in Gaza, mostly women and children since the war began in early October 2023. / REL/