The message is said to have been spread through loudspeakers in the area, reports the news agency AFP’s reporter on the spot. In addition, hospital director Mohammed Abu Salmiya has received a phone call with orders to evacuate patients, injured, medical staff and others “towards the sea”.
The hospital has been at the center since the war between terrorist-branded Hamas and Israel began in early October, when Hamas attacked Israel.
The hospital has received a huge number of wounded, following Israeli airstrikes, and many Gazan civilians have also sought refuge there in the hope of being protected from the bombs.
This week, Israeli soldiers entered the hospital and began searching the buildings. Israel claims that Hamas has a command center in or under the hospital, that it is being used for military purposes.
The pressure from the outside world for Israel to present evidence for its claims is increasing. The photos and videos that the Israeli military has shown and claim are evidence of a Hamas command center on the hospital grounds have not been verified by any outside party. Israel has for years claimed that such a center exists there, which both Hamas and staff at the al-Shifa hospital deny.