Gaza/Jerusalem: More foreigners prepared to leave the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday as its Hamas-run government said at least 195 Palestinians died in Israel’s attacks on the Jabalia refugee camp, strikes that UN human rights officials said could be war crimes.
Explosions were heard in the early hours of Thursday around the Al-Quds hospital in densely populated Gaza City, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Israeli authorities had previously warned the hospital to evacuate immediately, which UN officials said was impossible without endangering patients.
Israeli military has targeted an UNRWA school in al-Shati Camp in Gaza. Thousands of displaced people in Gaza are currently taking shelter in the school.
The attacks comes after five Palestinians were killed in an earlier raid targeting areas around that school.
Meanwhile, Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, Gaza’s only medical facility serving cancer patients, forced to shut down after running out of fuel. The Indonesian Hospital running on backup generator.
At least 320 foreign citizens on an initial list of 500, as well as dozens of severely injured Gazans, crossed into Egypt on Wednesday under a deal among Israel, Egypt and Hamas.
Passport holders from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, the United Kingdom and the United States were in the evacuation.
Gaza border officials said the border crossing would reopen on Thursday so more foreigners could exit. A diplomatic source said some 7,500 foreign passport holders would leave Gaza over about two weeks.
More than 20,000 wounded people are still trapped in the Gaza Strip, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), despite initial evacuations of foreign passport holders and badly injured Palestinians across the border to Egypt.
MSF noted the evacuations of “a number of severely injured” people in a statement on Wednesday, saying that its 22 international staff members in Gaza had also been among those who left the territory via the Rafah border crossing.
“However, there are still over 20,000 injured people in Gaza with limited access to health care due to the siege,” it said.
MSF’s Palestinian staff were still offering care in the territory, it added, and another international team was waiting to enter the territory to replace those who left “as soon as the situation allows.”
The organization went on to call for a greater number of people to be evacuated, as well as for a cease-fire and for more critical aid to be allowed in.
“Those who wish to leave Gaza must be allowed to do so without further delay. They must also be allowed the right to return,” the statement said.
Pressing an offensive against defenceless civilians under the pretext of hunting Hamas, Israel has bombed Gaza by land, sea and air.
The Gaza health ministry says at least 8,808 Palestinians in the narrow coastal enclave, including 3,648 children, have been killed by Israeli strikes since Oct. 7.
11 bakeries bombed
Eleven bakeries in Gaza have been struck and destroyed since 7 October, according to an update from the UN Relief Agency (UNOCHA).
Six of the destroyed bakeries were in Gaza City, two in Jabalia, two in the Middle Area and one in Khan Younis, UNOCHA added.
With only nine bakeries left operating in Gaza as of Wednesday, people are being “exposed to air strikes” while standing in “hours-long queues”, UNOCHA said.
The bakeries are receiving flour from UNOCHA, but are struggling to continue operating due to fuel shortages, the relief agency added.
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