There is no safe space in Gaza due to the ongoing Israeli aggression, said the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday as the war raged on for the 37th day in the narrow enclave.
Thousands of Palestinians were forcefully evicted South while Israel continued to target hospitals and refugee camps amid protesters across the world calling for a ceasefire.
According to Palestinian officials, at least 11,078 Gazans have been killed in air and artillery strikes since October 7, majority of them children, women and the elderly, as of Friday.
At least 18 of Gaza’s 35 hospitals were forced to shut down due to Israeli air strikes, reported Al Jazeera.
Violent clashes raged on between IDF and Hamas fighters in Al Nasr neighbourhood, home to several major hospitals, and Al Shati camp in Gaza.
As the humanitarian situation worsened, Gaza’s border authority said the Rafah crossing into Egypt would reopen on Sunday for foreign passport holders. Jordan also air-dropped more aid into a field hospital in the enclave.
At a news conference late on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the deaths of five more Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The Israeli military said 46 had been killed since its ground operations there began.
Hamas said it had completely or partially destroyed more than 160 Israeli military targets in Gaza, including more than 27 tanks and vehicles in the past 48 hours. An Israeli military spokesperson said Hamas had lost control of northern Gaza.
A temporary halt in fighting was announced by the Israeli army on Sunday to allow citizens to leave northern Gaza along Salah al-Din Street from 9am to 4pm [7am to 2am GMT].
The Israeli army said there would be a four-hour “temporary tactical cessation of military activities” in Jabalia starting from 10am [8am GMT]. “We call on residents to take advantage of this temporary suspension of fires and move south,” the military wrote on its Arabic channel on X, adding that there would also be a humanitarian corridor for people to leave Al-Shifa Hospital through Al-Wahda street to reach the Salah al-Din route.
However, Al-Jazeera reported testimonies from inside the hospital stating that leaving the medical facility is not safe.
In separate messages, Ahmad Mokhallalati, a surgeon inside al-Shifa, and Mustafa Sarsour, the only remaining journalist inside the hospital, told Al Jazeera that they witnessed civilians trying to exit the building being shot at.
Meanwhile, Muhammad R Mhawish, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza City told Al Jazeera that the humanitarian pauses announced by IDF were only on Salah al-Din Street, not on the streets leading to it.
“Within the city, the fighting is ongoing, and all the roads in the city are destroyed,” he said, adding that there’s no way to get to Salah al-Din from downtown Gaza City.
Palestinians have mainly been using Salah al-Din Street to flee towards southern Gaza.
