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Biggest hospital still functioning in the strip – Nasser in Khan Younis – under siege from Israeli forces
Gaza’s largest functioning hospital was under siege on Friday in Israel’s war with Hamas, leaving patients and doctors helpless in the chaos as warplanes struck Rafah, the last refuge for Palestinians in the enclave, officials said.
Reuters reports that Israeli forces remained in Nasser hospital in the town of Khan Younis after raiding it early on Thursday. The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said five intensive-care patients died on Friday due to power outages and lack of oxygen supply caused by the attack.
Egypt is preparing an area at the Gaza border which could accommodate Palestinians in case an Israeli offensive into Rafah prompts an exodus across the frontier, four sources told Reuters, in what they described as a contingency move by Cairo. Egypt, which denied making any such preparations, has repeatedly raised the alarm over the possibility that Israel’s Gaza offensive could displace Palestinians into Sinai – something Cairo says would be completely unacceptable – echoing warnings from Arab states such as Jordan. The Sinai Foundation for Human Rights, an Egyptian non-governmental organisation, released images showing workers using heavy machinery erecting concrete barriers and security towers around a strip of land on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
An exodus of Palestinians into Egypt must be “avoided at all costs” and could be the “nail in the coffin” of a future peace process, the UN high commissioner for refugees said. “The position of Egypt has been very clear: people should not go across the border. I think Egypt has very valid reasons,” Filippo Grandi told the BBC from the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
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