Patients, medics flee south Gaza hospital after evacuation orders, WHO says

9/7/2024 6:45

        Gaza's European Hospital in Khan Younis is virtually empty with staff and patients fleeing the facility after the Israeli army ordered residents in the surrounding areas to evacuate, a World Health Official spokesperson said on Tuesday.
        
        Thousands of Palestinians, many of them already displaced multiple times in the more than eight-month conflict, have fled parts of southern Gaza since Monday amid Israeli bombardments.
        
        "The hospital staff and the patients decided to already evacuate themselves," said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO Representative for the occupied Palestinian territories, adding that just three patients remained. "We plea the European Gaza hospital will be spared, will be non-damaged," he told the U.N. press briefing, speaking by video link from Jerusalem.
        
        An Israeli defence official said that although evacuation orders had been issued for the area in which the hospital is located, staff and patients were told they could stay.