Battles force Palestinians out of hospitals in Gaza, leaving patients, babies and medics stranded

BY WAFAA SHURAFA AND SAMY MAGDY

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Battles around hospitals have forced thousands of Palestinians to flee from some of the last shelters in northern Gaza while stranding critically wounded patients, including newborns, and their caregivers with dwindling supplies and no electricity, health officials said Monday.

The Israeli military has urged Palestinians to flee south on foot through what it calls safe corridors. But its purported drive to separate civilians from Hamas militants has come at a heavy cost, with more than two thirds of the territory’s population of 2.3 million having already fled their homes.

As Israeli troops encircled Gaza’s Shifa Hospital over the weekend, thousands fled, while hundreds of patients and displaced people remained, according to officials. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Shifa “is not functioning as a hospital anymore.”

Another hospital in Gaza City, Al-Quds, was forced to shut