Last working hospital in North Gaza out of service after Israeli military orders evacuation
31 May 2025, 02:41
There is "no health facility working in the north" of Gaza after the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of al-Awda hospital in Jabalia.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
The hospital's director, Dr Mohammed Salha, said patients were evacuated on Thursday evening after "two weeks of siege" by Israeli military forces.
Dr Salha said the hospital endured bombing and shooting from tanks from around noon on Thursday.
He received the order from Israeli forces to evacuate at around 13:00 local time, but refused because the hospital's patients were in need of healthcare.
He offered to stay with 10 staff members and evacuate others, but the Israeli military refused.
Seven hours of negotiations ensued before the evacuation occurred at around 20:30 local time.
On Thursday evening, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of areas that included the al-Awda hospital, saying there was terrorist activity in the region.
Read More: Israel confirms plans to establish 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) has not yet responded to enquiries regarding the evacuation of the hospital.
The IDF said last week it was "operating in the area against terror targets", but that it was "not aware of any siege on the hospital itself."
Dr Salha said: "We're really sad that we evacuated the hospital, but the Israeli occupation forces threatened us that if we didn't evacuate, they would enter and kill whoever is inside."
"Or they would bomb the hospital. We were thinking of the lives of patients and our staff."
Staff carried patients more than 300 metres to ambulances unable to park closer to the hospital because surrounding roads were "totally destroyed".
Videos taken by hospital staff show people boarding ambulances and a lorry to the east of the hospital courtyard at sunset.
Videos also show a convoy of similar vehicles moving south through Jabalia after dark.
Patients were evacuated to al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Dr Salha said staff would provide medical help to patients through a primary health centre in the city, and that another may be established in a shelter.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the closure of al-Awda had severed "a critical lifeline" for the people in the North Gaza governorate. He said there is now no functioning hospital in the area.
He reiterated calls for civilians and health workers to be protected, saying: "Hospitals must never be attacked or militarised."
A statement from 18 charities on Thursday said the hospital had been under military besiegement "for the fourth time since October 2023 and has been struck at least 28 times".
The emergency room, desalination plant, and storage unit were struck, leading to the loss of all medicine, supplies, and equipment, the charities said.
Charity ActionAid said they are "appalled" that the hospital "has been forced out of operation after the Israeli military ordered everyone inside the facility, including critically sick and injured patients, to evacuate."
"This spells utter disaster for Palestinians including pregnant women in the north of the strip who now have nowhere to turn to receive medical care."
"For many of them, it will be a death sentence."
The evacuation comes as ceasefire efforts continue. Hamas is reviewing a US plan, which the White House says has been "signed off" by Israel.
President Donald Trump said on Friday he believed a deal was "very close". However, Hamas has said the plan does not fulfil its core demands including Israel's commitment to ending the war.
The deal would reportedly involve a 60-day pause in fighting and the release of 28 Hamas hostages, with the remaining 30 to be freed once a permanent ceasefire deal is secured.
Israel would release more than 1,000 prisoners, and humanitarian aid would be sent to Gaza via the United Nations and other agencies.
Israel began to allow a small amount of humanitarian aid into Gaza last week after a blockade that lasted nearly three months prevented the delivery of food, medicine, fuel and shelter into the region.
Aid is being distributed from centres run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a US and Israeli-backed group.
The UN and aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, claiming it is not neutral and forces the displacement of Palestinians by its distribution of aid.
As of Friday, GHF says that it has distributed more than 2.1 million meals in Gaza.
Some protestors in Israel have tried to block aid trucks from entering Gaza.
Israel is facing increased international pressure to allow more supplies of aid to enter Gaza.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that "we will have to harden our collective position" if Israel does not do more "in the coming hours and days."
Israel's foreign ministry responded on social media, saying "there is no humanitarian blockade" and accusing the French president of continuing a "crusade against the Jewish state."
A UN-backed assessment this month said Gaza's 2.1 million people were at a "critical risk" of famine.
The Hamas-run health ministry says at least 54,321 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel launched its military campaign in response to Hamas's cross-border attack on a music festival on October 7 2023.
