CAIRO/GAZA: Israel issued new evacuation orders for Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip late Sunday, forcing more families to flee. The military said it was targeting the militant Hamas group and other groups operating in the area. In recent days, Israel has issued several evacuation orders for the entire Gaza Strip, the most since the start of the 10-month war, sparking an outcry from Palestinians, the United Nations and aid groups over the shrinking of humanitarian zones and the lack of safe areas.
The Deir Al-Balah municipality said that 250,000 people have been displaced so far due to Israeli evacuation orders.
At least seven Palestinians were killed in Israeli military strikes on Monday, medics said. Two of them were killed in Deir Al-Balah, where around a million people were seeking shelter, 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 had sought refuge for fear of bombings.
The hospital is located near the area covered by the evacuation order.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said in a statement on X on Sunday evening that an explosion about 250 meters from the MSF-supported Al-Aqsa hospital sparked panic.
“For this reason, MSF is considering suspending wound care for the time being while trying to maintain life-saving treatment.”
Of the approximately 650 patients, only 100 are still in hospital, seven of them in intensive care, the Gaza Health Ministry said.
“This situation is unacceptable. Al Aqsa has been operating far beyond its capacity for weeks because there are no alternatives for patients. All warring parties must respect the hospital and ensure patients' access to medical care,” it said.
DIPLOMATIC DEAD END
Sawasn Abu Afesh said she and her children have been displaced 11 times.
“I left half of my children with my furniture and now I am with my little ones and my daughter. Only God can help us… I have no money for transportation. I will go on my own to Area 17, where my family is staying. I took my children with me and three stayed behind. No idea where,” the woman said.
With the escalation, there is little hope of an end to the war in sight, as diplomatic efforts by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States have so far failed to bridge the gap between Israel and Hamas, whose leaders have traded blame and responsibility for the lack of agreement.
Neither Hamas nor Israel agreed to several compromises presented by mediators at talks in Cairo on Sunday, two Egyptian security sources said.
However, a senior US official described the talks as “constructive” and said they were conducted by all sides in the spirit of reaching “a final and workable agreement”.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan said the group rejected the new conditions put forward by Israel during the talks, which the group did not attend. He added that US comments on an impending ceasefire agreement were false and aimed at electoral purposes.
US President Joe Biden and his administration are facing growing protests in the US against aid to Israel ahead of the November elections.
More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. The overcrowded enclave has been devastated and most of its 2.3 million residents have been displaced multiple times and are suffering acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.
The war was triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, in which, according to Israeli figures, 1,200 people were killed and over 250 taken hostage.
