Moving patients means killing them, says Palestinian Red Crescent
In a video statement shared on social media, the Palestinian Red Crescent says it doesn’t have the means to evacuate Al-Quds hospital in northern Gaza, as apparently directed by the Israeli authorities.
“We have over 400 patients who are inside the hospital, many of them are in the intensive care unit. Evacuating them means killing them. That’s why we refuse the evacuation order,” a representative of the group says.
“We call on the international community to intervene immediately to stop a humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding.”
She says there are also more than 14,000 civilians seeking shelter at the hospital.
The Israeli military has not commented on the apparent evacuation order.
WHO deeply concerned by Gaza hospital evacuation reports
Doctors and the Palestinian Red Crescent working at the Al-Quds hospital in northern Gaza said earlier today that they had been told by the Israeli military to evacuate immediately.
A message, translated by BBC staff, is addressed to "Al-Quds Hospital staff, ambulance drivers and displaced people in schools".
It tells them to leave the area immediately, and relocate to the "humanitarian zone in the south".
The director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says the reports are deeply concerning.
"We reiterate - it's impossible to evacuate hospitals full of patients without endangering their lives," he
said in a post on X.
"Under International Humanitarian Law, healthcare must always be protected."
Israel's military has not commented.
