As deadly bombardment and starvation rack the besieged enclave, health officials are scrambling to relocate dozens of people who are still there.
Since early on Thursday, Israeli attacks have claimed the lives of at least 70 Palestinians.
The Israeli hospital’s closure was described as a “continuation of the violations and crimes” committed against the Palestinian medical sector by the Gaza Health Ministry.
According to health officials, Al-Awda was the last hospital in northern Gaza to operate. The hospital’s closure came as a result of Israeli-forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, with a large number of people in the north and east of Gaza City being affected by the latest order, which was issued late on Thursday.
The health ministry’s statement read, “The Ministry calls on all concerned sides to ensure protection for the health system in the Gaza Strip, as guaranteed by international and humanitarian laws.”
13 patients are still being treated at the hospital, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). On Friday, the UN agency will launch a mission to transfer the patients to a different facility.
The hospital’s medical equipment cannot be relocated because of impassable roads, according to WHO in a statement.
There is no longer a functioning hospital in North Gaza as a result of Al-Awda’s closure, breaking a vital lifeline there.
WHO pleaded “for the hospital’s protection and the safety of the staff and patients.”
More than 1,400 medical workers have been killed by Israel’s bombings and besieging hospitals in Gaza since the start of the conflict, according to local authorities.
We haven’t seen any food or flour in five days.
Israel’s continued suffocating blockade of the enclave has caused the humanitarian crisis at al-Awda Hospital to worsen as the day-to-day it gets worse.
On Thursday, a humanitarian aid effort supported by the United States and Israel was still roiling as a limited supply of food was distributed at specific locations run by a secretive organization known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Saher Abu Tahoon, a Palestinian resident in central Gaza, told Al Jazeera, “We have come a long distance, around 10 kilometers [6.2 miles] to take this box tainted with blood.”
Because there isn’t anywhere to eat, we need this box. In the past five days, we haven’t seen any food or flour. We traveled a very long way to get food for our kids. Because I’m too hungry and exhausted, I can’t even carry this box.
Early on Friday, Israeli gunfire and multiple explosions were reported close to a distribution center in central Gaza.
Palestinians who walked to the newly opened humanitarian facility at the Netzarim Corridor in central Gaza were unable to leave because of Israeli military activity, according to Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud, a reporter from Gaza City.
According to Mahmoud, “many of the people who showed up at the site are trapped right now and unable to leave the area because of the ongoing shooting and the presence of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles.”
They have been coordinating their evacuation from the area by sending appeals to the Red Cross. They are starting to take a lot of risks walking on their own.
Israel has been pushing for the UN to omit and halt its aid distribution, which is criticized as a further bolstering humanitarian aid in the area.
The issue is that, to be honest, the insecurity persists and doesn’t make it simple for us to deliver humanitarian goods, Dujarric said.
Israel has prohibited the world body from regaining the supplies for the past three days, he continued, adding that there are 600 aid trucks on the Gaza side of the Karem Abu Salem crossing (also known as Kerem Shalom).
The UNRWA head, Philippe Lazzarini, stated that “starvation is threatening the future of the children in the Palestinian enclave.”
In a post on X, Lazzarini stated that “what’s urgently needed is political will to enable the UN and partners to provide assistance at scale without retaliation or interruption.” “Permit us to carry out our duties.”
At least 70 Palestinians were killed in attacks across Gaza on Thursday, according to medical sources, despite the dire humanitarian conditions.
About 30 people were missing under the rubble of an Israeli bombing of a residential building in the Tuffah neighborhood of Gaza City, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense.
The Civil Defense stated in a statement that it is impossible to retrieve the missing people from the rubble due to the lack of heavy equipment.
We therefore request immediate and necessary intervention from the international community and human rights organizations to safeguard Gaza Strip civilians and innocent people.
Ceasefire messaging
Meanwhile, Hamas is still studying the plan, despite the fact that Washington announced that Israel has accepted a temporary ceasefire proposal put forth by US envoy Steve Witkoff.
White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Israel “signed off on this proposal before it was sent to Hamas.”
We hope a ceasefire in Gaza will be reached so that we can bring all of the hostages back home, and I can confirm that those discussions are continuing.
Basem Naim, a member of the Hamas political bureau, told the AFP news agency that the US proposal “continued to kill and famine” and “does not fulfill any of our people’s demands, especially halting the war.”
The movement’s leadership, he continued, is fully responsible for studying the proposal’s response.
Netanyahu may be betting on the plan being rejected by Hamas so that he can paint them as the “bad guys” and continue the war, according to Akiva Eldar, an Israeli political analyst, Al Jazeera .
Netanyahu attributed the blame to them, he said, adding that it had already happened.
