Inside Gaza hospital where hundreds shelter despite Israeli evacuation orders

Hundreds of people including young children and babies line the corridors of a Gaza City hospital, which the Israeli authorities have ordered to evacuate, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

In footage released by the rescue service, youngsters as well as adults and elderly people are seen throughout the crowded building sat down or laying on mattresses, some with small piles of belongings or clothes hanging on doors.

There is no sign those sheltering inside al Quds hospital are following Israeli orders to evacuate, which were made in two calls on Sunday, according to the PRCS which said airstrikes have hit as close as 50 metres away.

Israel had first ordered the evacuation of the hospital more than a week ago, where the PCRS says some 14,000 people are seeking shelter, but along with other medical facilities it has refused saying it would mean death for patients on ventilators.

A doctor from north London, who is working at al Shifa hospital, the largest medical complex in the Gaza Strip, also said there were no plans to evacuate.

“Nobody’s left Shifa, nobody’s leaving anywhere,” Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah told Sky News in a voice note.

“People have now realised with all the killing that’s happened in the southern part and nobody wants to move.”

He said medics are running out of basic supplies such as gauze and post-operation medications, including intravenous paracetamol.

“You keep thinking it’s not going to get worse but it does get worse,” he said following a communications blackout in the territory after bombing cut telephone and internet connections on Friday.

“We’re now at 19,000 wounded, two days of no communication just meant the most basic thing of trying to find somebody, of calling somebody, of asking someone to come to the operating room became a nightmare.

“The ambulances would just head in the general direction of the bombing to see if they can find any of the victims.”

Israel has accused Hamas of launching attacks from hospitals in Gaza, with a military spokesman claiming authorities have “concrete evidence” that hundreds of Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October terrorist atrocity in southern Israel then “flooded” into al Shifa hospital.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari on Friday showed what he said was intelligence material proving that Hamas militants were commanding attacks against Israel from inside the hospital, although it has not been possible to independently verify the claims.

The Hamas led Gazan ministry of health said at least 3,195 children have been killed in Gaza since 7 October, which is more than the number of children killed across the world’s conflict zones since 2019, according to the Save the Children Charity.