Thousands of Palestinians streamed onto Gaza’s only highway on Friday, fleeing the combat zone in the north after Israel announced a window for safe passage, as officials in the enclave said the Palestinian death toll surpassed 11,000 people.
Amid an intensifying campaign of airstrikes and ground battles in Gaza City, the search for safety in the besieged enclave has grown increasingly desperate. Tens of thousands have walked south, where they face the prospect of ongoing bombardment and dire conditions. Others have crowded into and around hospitals, sleeping in operating rooms and wards.
Gaza medical officials accused Israel of striking near hospitals on Friday, though Israel said at least one was the result of a misfired Palestinian rocket.
Gaza’s largest city is the focus of Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas following its deadly October 7 surprise incursion.
Early on Friday, Israel struck the courtyard and the obstetrics department of Shifa Hospital, where tens of thousands of people are sheltering, according to Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson at the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. 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.
The Israeli army has alleged that Hamas hides in and under hospitals and that it has set up a command center under Shifa — claims the militant group and hospital staff deny.
The director of Shifa said Israel demanded the facility be evacuated, but he said there was nowhere for such a large number of patients to go.
“Where are we going to evacuate them?” director Mohammed Abu Selmia asked in an interview on the television network Al Jazeera.
The health ministry later said one person had been killed at Shifa and several were wounded. Another strike near the Al-Nasr Medical Centre, which includes two hospitals for children, killed two people, according to the ministry. In all, Gaza health officials said strikes were carried out near four hospitals overnight and early on Friday.