With more than 1.5 million Gazans displaced, and 18 hospitals shut down, the UN news has stated that hundreds of thousands are living in fear and under continuing Israeli bombardment.

“Casualties continue to mount, with the dead reportedly exceeding 11,000 people – the majority of them children and women,” said Emergency Relief Coordinator and Humanitarian Affairs chief, Martin Griffiths.

“The actual total, however, is likely much higher as figures have not been updated for five days due to a collapse of communication networks in Gaza,” Griffiths added.
Across Gaza, but particularly in the north, Griffith stated that food and water supplies are running perilously low, and the lack of fuel means communications and essential services like water desalination are progressively failing.
“We are not asking for the moon. We are asking for the basic measures required to meet the essential needs of the civilian population and stem the course of this crisis,” he stressed.

In conclusion, Mr. Griffiths warned that for as dire as the situation is in Gaza, “it could get far worse.” “If we do not take action now, this is a conflict that could spread its tendrils further into other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and beyond, and drag the region into a conflagration with even more catastrophic consequences,” he said.

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Meanwhile, the Al Jazeera news have reported that , about 450 patients from al-Shifa Hospital has been evacuated, while about 120 were left behind because they were immobile, according to Munir al-Barsh, director general of Gaza’s Health Ministry. Emergency room supervisor Omar Zaqout told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army ordered everyone at al-Shifa Hospital – including doctors, patients and displaced people – to evacuate the medical compound in one hour through the al-Wehda road.

While the Israeli army has denied it ordered the evacuation, it claimed instead that it responded to a request by the hospital’s director to let those wishing to leave to take a secure route out. It added that it notified medics in the hospital that they were ready to facilitate the transfer of patients.

The Israeli claims were refuted by Mohammed Zaqout, Director of Gaza hospitals, who insisted patients were forced to leave at gunpoint. Munir al-Barsh, Director-general of Gaza’s Health Ministry and Adnan al-Barsh, head of orthopaedics at the hospital, provided the same account, reported Al Jazeera.

Evacuees were ordered at 9am to leave while waving a white handkerchief and walk in a single-file line, the health official said.