GAZA: More than 30 premature babies were evacuated Sunday from Gaza's largest hospital, said a health official in the Hamas-run territory, as Israel's army struck more targets in its war on the Palestinian militant group.
The World Health Organization (WHO) scrambled to evacuate the last remaining patients and staff from Al-Shifa hospital, describing it as a "death zone" after UN officials visited the facility raided earlier this week by Israeli troops.
Mohammed Zaqut, director general of Gaza's hospitals, told AFP that "all 31 premature babies in Al-Shifa hospital have been evacuated" along with three doctors and two nurses. "Preparations are under way" for them to enter Egypt via the Rafah crossing, Zaqut said.
Elsewhere in northern Gaza, a Hamas health official said more than 80 people were killed on Saturday in twin strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, the territory's largest, including on a UN school sheltering displaced people.
Israel has vowed to destroy Gaza's rulers Hamas over the October 7 attacks that it says killed 1,200 people and saw 240 hostages taken, in the worst-ever onslaught on the country.
In Gaza, the Hamas government says 12,300 have been killed in Israel's relentless aerial bombardment and ground operations. Most of the casualties on both sides are civilians.
Israel said Saturday its military was "expanding its operational activities in additional neighbourhoods... of the Gaza Strip" where the UN says some 1.6 million people have been internally displaced by more than six weeks of fighting.
The narrow Palestinian enclave, under a crippling blockade since Hamas took power in 2007, has been under an Israeli siege since the war erupted, leaving food, water, medicine and fuel in short supply.
The fighting has rendered more than half of Gaza's 36 hospitals non-functioning by shortages, combat or damage, the UN has said.
On Sunday, the WHO described dire conditions at Gaza City's Al-Shifa hospital, with a mass grave at the entrance and nearly 300 patients left inside with 25 health workers.
It said it was planning "the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families".
But it warned that nearby facilities were already overstretched and urged an immediate ceasefire given the "extreme suffering of the people of Gaza".
The Israeli army said three soldiers were killed Saturday in fighting in northern Gaza, raising the number of troop deaths there to 62 since the war began.
