Israeli strikes hit near several hospitals in Gaza City early on Friday as the military pushed deeper into dense urban neighbourhoods in its battle with Hamas militants, prompting increasing numbers of civilians to flee toward the south of the besieged territory.
Israel has accused Hamas fighters of hiding in hospitals and using the Shifa Hospital complex as its main command centre, which the militant group and hospital staff deny, saying Israel is creating a pretext to strike it.
Growing numbers of people have been living in and around Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest, hoping it will be safer than their homes or United Nations shelters in the north, several of which have been hit repeatedly.
Israeli troops were around two miles from the hospital, according to its director.
Early on Friday, Israel struck the Shifa courtyard and the obstetrics department, according to the head of the Hamas-run media office in Gaza, Salama Maarouf.
A video at the scene recorded the sound of incoming fire waking people up in their makeshift shelters in the courtyard, followed by screams for an ambulance.
Mr Maarouf told the television network Al Jazeera that strikes were carried out near three hospitals in total, but gave no casualty figures.
The Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza later said one person had been killed at Shifa Hospital and several were wounded.
Gaza’s largest city is the focus of Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas following its deadly October 7 surprise incursion.
More than 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since the hostilities began, according to the Gaza health ministry on Friday.
Another 2,650 people have been reported missing and may be trapped or dead under the rubble.
Though United States President Joe Biden and others have challenged the figures from the Gaza Health Ministry as exaggerated, assistant secretary of state Barbara Leaf told lawmakers earlier in the week that it was “very possible” the numbers were actually even higher than reported.
More than 1,400 people have been killed in Israel, mainly in the initial Hamas attack, and more than 30 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ground offensive began.
Israel’s military said on Friday that it killed 19 Hamas militants overnight – including a company commander and a platoon commander who were involved in the October 7 attack – and also destroyed a shipping container that held some 20 rocket launchers.
Since the start of the week, the Israeli military has set aside several hours a day to enable civilians to flee from the combat zone in northern Gaza to the south, along the territory’s main north-south road. More than 120,000 civilians fled between Sunday and Thursday, according to U.N. monitors.
On Thursday, crowds of Palestinian families stretching as far as the eye could see were walking south to escape Israeli airstrikes and the ground battle raging between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters.
The accelerating exodus to the south came as Israel agreed to start implementing a four-hour humanitarian pause each day and to open a second route for people to flee the north, the White House said.
Those fleeing to the south face the prospect of ongoing airstrikes there, and dire humanitarian conditions.
